Taiwan media and business people yesterday welcomed the new weekend charter flights carrying mainland tourists as good news for ties across the Taiwan Straits and for the economy.

The event made headlines such as "We have been waiting for this moment for 60 years," "Spring time for Taiwan aviation industry," and "A day trip across the Straits".

Taiwan's United Daily News devoted three full pages to the flights with stories headlined "Soybean milk at Yonghe (a popular Taiwan fast food chain) for breakfast and steamed buns for lunch in Shanghai" and "No more transfers and win your afternoon back".

One of stories, titled "A business trip to Shanghai in one day", described how the flights could change a Taiwan business person's life.

A commentary by writer Yang Du in the same newspaper said charter flights and mainland tourists would "draw the cross-Straits cultures even closer to each other psychologically."

Taiwan's China Times published an editorial that said "weekend charter flights will change Taiwan people's lives" and "will help develop Taiwan's economy with a much freer flow of people and investment".

Business people also hailed the events as economically beneficial to Taiwan.

Taiwan Business Association chairman Chang Ping-Chao took a China Airlines flight on Friday from Taipei to Beijing, cutting what was usually a seven or eight-hour trip to four hours.

"So I arrived in Beijing at 1:30pm and still had the afternoon and evening available," Chang said.

China Airlines spokesman Chen Peng-Yu said the flights would enable Taiwan airlines to have a more complete network and develop better.

(Xinhua News Agency July 6, 2008)