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)
