Airlines begin Direct Charter Flights between China and Taiwan

Today, is an important day in the history of aviation and politics between mainland China and Taiwan. For the first time in almost 60 years, airlines have started flying direct commcercial flights between different cities in China and Taiwan. From today, the different airlines are permitted to operate these direct charter flights only between Friday to Monday (weekends), but there is hope this will be further opened to allow regular daily flights in the future.

Before today, travellers between China and Taiwan would have to transit in Macau or, more commonly Hong Kong. At special times of the year, especially in recent times, charter flights were permitted, but not with regular direct flights, travellers will be able to save valuable time and money flying directly.

Taiwan-based China Airlines, and its subsidiary, Mandarin Airlines, today inaugurated three round-trip direct weekend charter services between Taiwan and Mainland China. China Airlines flight CI-7957, the first cross-strait (Taiwan-China) flight among all 11 carriers that will fly the weekend charters, departed from Taoyuan (TPE) to Shanghai (PVG) at 07:30am and arrived at 10:10am this morning. An Airbus 330-300 was dedicated for the duty, carrying 313 passengers on the historic flight. Two senior pilots and 12 flight attendants were selected to provide a high-quality and enjoyable service.

Mandarin Airlines also launched its maiden direct flight AE-7225 from Taichung (RMQ) to Xiamen (XMN), leaving Taichung at 09:00am today. Meanwhile, China Airlines’ Beijing (PEK) service CI-7951 departed Taoyuan at 09:30am.

Mainland Chinese airlines also operated their first direct flights to Taiwan today. China Southern Airlines flight CZ3097 was the first to arrive in Taiwan. It departed from Guangzhou (CAN) and arrived in Taoyuan (TPE). Senior pilot Shaoyong Liu, who is also the Chairman of China  Southern Airlines, was personally on duty for the flight. His entourage included China Southern Vice President Zongkai He, and other senior management delegates. China Airlines President Huang-Hsiang Sun and his management team waited at the boarding gate to welcome the historic maiden flight from China.

Other cross-strait flights today included Air China CA185, from Beijing (PEK) to Taoyuan (TPE) and Hainan Airlines flight HU7987, from Beijing (PEK) to Songshan (TSA).

In addition to launching the direct weekend charter flights, China Airlines also represents ground handling business for most of the Chinese carriers, such as China Southern Airlines, China Eastern Airlines, Air China and Hainan Airlines, for their flights into Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) and Taipei Songshan Airport (TSA).

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