The AE 873 flight of the Taiwan-based Mandarin Airlines landed at 8:56 AM Sunday at the Baiyun International Airport in this capital city of south China's Guangdong Province.

The touchdown of the 108-seater FK100, which carried 63 Taiwan business people and their family members from Taipei to Guangzhou, signified the resumption of the non-stop charter flight services across the Straits after the Spring Festival, according to the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC).

This was the first time for the Mandarin Airlines to have a flight towards Guangzhou and also the first time for a charter plane to touch down in the city after the festival, the CAAC said.

The Mandarin Airlines, a wholly owned subsidiary of Taiwan-based China Airlines, was established in June 1991.

The FK100 took off in Taipei at 7:00 AM Sunday. The seven-member crew of the flight was greeted by delegates from the China Southern Airlines, which provided ground logistic services for its Taiwan counterpart. Then they held a brief welcoming ceremony at the airport, at which leading members of the China Southern Airlines and the Mandarin Airlines exchanged gifts.

The FK100 plane carrying 68 passengers left Guangzhou at 10:10 AM for Taipei, sources with the mainland airways said.

Also on Sunday morning, the flight dubbed CA 1087 of the Air China based in the Chinese mainland left Beijing for Taipei and was due to take off in Taipei at 4:00 PM on Sunday to return to China's capital, sources with Air China said.

It is reported that Sunday was the last day of the Spring Festival holiday in Taiwan Province, and that the end of holiday season also drew near on the Chinese mainland.

The Chinese mainland and Taiwan civil aviation professionals reached consensus about the launch of the charter flights earlier last month in Macao. The two sides agreed to run the flights from Jan. 29 to Feb. 20 between mainland cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and Taiwan's Taipei and Kaohsiung.

The non-stop charter flight services were exclusively arranged for Taiwan business people working in the mainland to return home for the Chinese Lunar New Year, or the Spring Festival, which fell on Feb. 9.

By Feb. 7, when the charter flight services started to suspend for the holiday, 4,641 Taiwan business people and their family members took the charter flights to return home, and 1,236 Taiwan compatriots came to the mainland through the air services, according to the CAAC.

The six mainland carriers, namely Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, China Southern Airlines, Xiamen Airlines and Hainan Airlines, undertook 16 round-trip flights across the Straits, while the five airways from Taiwan, namely China Airlines, Trans Asia Airways, Eva Air, Far Eastern Air Transport and UNI Air, operated 12 round-trip flights. All of the flights were reportedly served safely and smoothly.

(Xinhua News Agency February 14, 2005)