Taipei - Taiwan plans to launch regular flights with China
in the first half of 2009, an official said Friday.
Lee Wen-lung, director of the Civil Aeronautics Administration
(CAA), told Broadcasting Corp of China that 'authorities' have
instructed CAA to achieve normalization of air flights across the
Taiwan Strait before summer.
'Although the two sides have not opened talks, all the
preparations have been made,' the radio quoted Lee as saying.
Taiwan launched holiday charter flights with China in 2003, turned
them into weekend charter flights on July 4, 2008, and expanded them
into daily charter flights on December 15, 2008.
President Ma Ying-jeou, from the China-friendly Chinese
Nationalist Party, has instructed agencies concerned to launch
regular flights with China to ease tension and to allow Chinese
tourists to visit the island.
In related news, Taiwan on Friday allowed the Star Cruise line to
launch Taiwan-China cruise service, according to the Central News
Agency (CNA).
According to CNA, the Transport Ministry has approved Star
Cruise's application to launch Keelung-Xiamen regular service
starting in the first half of 2009. The certificate, issued on a
case-by-case basis, is valid for one year.
However, as the Taiwan-China agreement on sea links allows only
Taiwanese and Chinese ships to join the direct sea links launched on
December 15, 2008, Star Cruise still has to seek approval from
Beijing for its Keelung-Xiamen service, CNA said.
If Star Cruise launches Taiwan-China service, it will become the
first foreign cruise line to offer cruise service across the Taiwan
Strait.
Taiwan banned sea, air and postal links with China at the end of
the Chinese Civil War in 1949, when the Republic of China government
lost the war and fled to Taiwan to set up its government-in-exile.
In recent years, as tension began to thaw, Taiwan has relaxed the
restrictions and decided to fully drop the bans, after Ma took office
on May 20, 2008 and pledged to seek reconciliation with China.
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