The Chinese mainland and Taiwan on Friday agreed to begin weekend chartered flights across the Taiwan Strait, over which direct flights have been operated only at major festivals.

Chen Yunlin, chairman of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), and Chiang Pin-kun, chairman of the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF), signed a minute of talks on weekend chartered flights in Beijing.

The service, scheduled to start from July 4, will include 36 return flights for every weekend, from each Friday to the following Monday, and the number will increase according to demand, the minute said.

The flights would be divided evenly between mainland and Taiwan airlines, it said.

The mainland will first open Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Nanjing to the flights, and will gradually add Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Dalian, Guilin and Shenzhen, and possibly more if needed.

Taiwan will have eight terminals: Taipei, Taoyuan, Kaohsiung, Taichung, Penghu, Hualien, Kinmen and Taitung.

According to the minute, the flights from Taiwan to Shanghai will be restricted to a maximum of nine every weekend and those from the mainland to Taichung to six.

All passengers with legal passes to travel across the Strait can take the flights, the document said.

"The environment is favorable. Now there is a beginning, the next step will follow. We can't expect to reach the final target in one step," said Michael Lo, former chairman of the Taipei Airlines Association (TAA), in an interview with Friday's Beijing News.

The mainland and Taiwan would start discussing the direct flight route "as soon as possible" and before that all chartered flights will have to fly over Hong Kong, according to the documents.

Also on the agenda would be air traffic control system coordination to facilitate direct flights across the Strait, and the start of regular scheduled flights, but no timetable has been set.

Through chartered services, airlines across the Strait were testing the demand and collecting information for future regular scheduled flights, said Lo. "The mainland market is huge, but so far Taiwan airlines do not have a full picture. If Taiwan opens its tourism market fully to mainland tourists, they will have more confidence."

He expected a good business future for weekend charter flights due to lower costs and shorter times and said they would affect passenger flow through Hong Kong.

About 80 percent of passengers between Taiwan and the mainland transfer in Hong Kong, but the number might reduce by half due to the weekend services, he said.

However, Hong Kong would still have the advantage of operating flights linking many more mainland cities than terminals for weekend chartered service, he said.

Negotiations on chartered freight flights will be held within three months after the weekend services start, according to the document.

The two sides agreed that airlines will swap representative offices. Taiwan promised to allow mainland airline companies to set up offices in the island within six months. Mainland companies are allowed to send staff to prepare for the founding of offices.

Taiwan-based China Airlines has set up six offices in the mainland, according to its official website.

Efforts would be made to simplify entry-exit and custom procedures for passengers and cargo, the document said, and the two sides will continue charter flights for festivals.

The two sides started chartered flight service for the Spring Festival, a major event for Chinese family reunions, in 2003 and since 2006, the service has been expanded to three other major Chinese festivals: the Qingming, or Tomb Sweeping, Festival; Dragon Boat Festival; and Mid-Autumn Festival.

The mainland-based Cross-Strait Aviation Transport Exchange Council and TAA were entrusted to discuss and implement details of the agreement, which will take effect from June 20.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2008)