Passengers can take 24 round-trip charter flights across the Taiwan Straits during the Mid-Autumn Festival, a traditional Chinese feast, said the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) Friday.

Twelve airline companies, six from Chinese mainland and six from Taiwan, will operate the flights between four mainland cities Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Taipei of Taiwan, from Sept. 18 to Oct. 2, the administration said.

The Mid-Autumn Festival, whose date varies every year according to Chinese lunar calendar, will fall on Sept. 25 this year.

It is said, according to Chinese tradition, that at the Mid-Autumn Festival the full moon is the roundest and brightest in the whole year.

Chinese family members and close friends usually dine together at an open place to enjoy the bright moonlight on that night, a custom dating back about 1,500 years.

About 4 million people from Taiwan visit the Chinese mainland annually and an increasing number of Taiwan residents stay on the other side of the Straits for business and study.

But no direct regular flights have been available across the Taiwan Straits for more than five decades. Passengers must transfer at Hong Kong or Macao, costing more time and money.

The two sides worked out a solution of operating direct charter flights at festivals.

The first non-stop charter flights were launched during the Chinese Lunar New Year in 2005.

On June 14, 2006, the mainland-based Cross-Straits Aviation Transport Exchange Council and the Taipei Airlines Association agreed to open charter flights for other traditional festivals, including Tomb-sweeping Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival.

The Chinese mainland has repeatedly called for weekend and regular charter flights across the Straits.

(Xinhua News Agency September 8, 2007)