A breakthrough may take place in launching two-way, roundtrip and nonstop charter flights across the Taiwan Straits next month, following the agreement of a delegation of opposition politicians from the island province.

Minister Chen Yunlin of the State Council's Taiwan Affairs Office urged the Taiwan authorities to honor their pledge.

"If Taiwan can keep its word and is willing to be flexible, mainland-Taiwan air links can be achieved this year," he told the six-member Kuomintang (KMT) delegation, which arrived in Beijing on Sunday.

If the direct cross-Straits charter flight plan is put into place during the upcoming Lunar New Year -- China's Spring Festival holiday, which starts on February 9 -- it would be the first direct air link in more than five decades. Taipei has barred mainland airplanes since 1949.

Chen said that any attempt by the Taiwan authorities to complicate nongovernmental negotiations in the name of "security" goes against the interests of the broad mass of Taiwan compatriots.

Dozens of representatives from mainland-based Taiwan-funded enterprises and Taiwan airline also attended the meeting.

With the agreement of the mainland, the KMT delegation and related organizations in Taiwan, the ball moves into the court of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration led by Chen Shui-bian.

The KMT delegation is expected to report its agreements with the Taiwan Affairs Office to the mainland affairs council and urge the DPP administration to authorize industry associations and airlines to start discussions with their mainland counterparts.

Gao Hongfeng, deputy director of the General Administration of Civil Aviation, also met with the KMT mission Monday afternoon.

In 2003, six Taiwanese airlines operated a total of 16 charter flights between Taipei, Kaohsiung and Shanghai, the first time that Taiwan commercial aircraft landed on the mainland since 1949. But all charter planes were required to transit through Hong Kong or Macao and mainland carriers were completely excluded from the charter flights.

In 2004, the charter flight program was stopped because Taipei insisted on the exclusion of mainland airlines and stopovers for charter flights.

Meanwhile, China Eastern Airlines has contacted the Taiwan-based China Airlines to prepare for the proposed direct charter flights.

"If the direct flight plan is approved, China Eastern will immediately set up a leading group to guide the nonstop flights," said China Eastern President Luo Chaogeng.

China Airlines said yesterday that it will provide ground services for China Eastern when its planes land at airports in Taiwan. Cherry Teng, a spokeswoman with the Shanghai Office of China Airlines, said the charter planes will fly over Hong Kong on the way from Shanghai to Taiwan via Hong Kong, but they will not touch down. The journey will take around four hours, about three hours less than previous flights.

(China.org.cn, China Daily January 11, 2005)