Airlines of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan concluded on Tuesday cross-Strait charter flights during the 2008 Qingming Festival, or Tomb-sweeping Day, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Five mainland airline companies, including Air China, and six Taiwan carriers, including China Airlines, undertook 21 round trips from April 2 to 8.

The mainland airports that operated the flights were Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen, while Taipei and Kaohsiung acted for Taiwan, the administration said.

Among mainland cities, 14 round flights were completed in Shanghai.

The seat occupancy rate of the 2008 Qingming charter flights exceeded 70 percent, with some flights full, the administration said.

The Qingming Festival on April 4 this year was an occasion to remember the dead.

Mainland Chinese greeted the first "official" Qingming holiday this year as the State Council revised the nation's official holiday schedule late last year to add three traditional festivals -- Qingming, Duanwu and Zhongqiu -- in response to public demand.

The day was a public holiday on both the mainland and Taiwan.

Wang Peiji, a representative of the Taiwan-based EVA Air Shanghai branch, said the carrier was quite satisfied with the number of passengers taking flights from the Chinese business hub.

He attributed the high occupancy rate to Taiwan people who postponed their family reunion because of the snow storm and sleet weather that plagued the south and central mainland during the Chinese Lunar New Year, or Spring Festival, in early February.

A Taiwan businessman surnamed Wang from Kaohsiung said he had taken the Qingming Festival charter flights for two consecutive years.

"Charter flights at festival times are not enough," he said, adding some Taiwan businessmen still had to transfer through Hong Kong due to the limited number of flights.

"The problem is no longer a new one," Wang said. "We aspire that charter flights would soon become regular direct flights."

This was the second time the mainland and Taiwan had operated charters during the Qingming Festival. The flights during the 2007 festival carried nearly 7,000 passengers, figures from the administration showed.

However, all the regular planes from mainland cities to Taiwan were still required to transfer through Hong Kong instead of making direct flights to the island.

The service is also available during important holidays, including the traditional Duanwu festival (Dragon Boat Festival) in early summer, and the Zhongqiu festival (Mid-Autumn Festival) in autumn.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2008)