Taiwan, China Agree to Some Direct Flights

Taiwan and China said Wednesday that they had agreed to launch direct charter passenger flights across the Taiwan Strait during major holidays, a key trust-building step toward restoring regular direct flights cut five decades ago amid civil war.

Negotiators have also reached a “tentative consensus” on allowing Taiwanese companies to use chartered cargo flights to fly goods and equipment, said Joseph Wu, chairman of Taiwan’s Cabinet-level Mainland Affairs Council.

In Beijing, China’s General Administration of Civil Aviation said the rivals had agreed “on the framework of chartered flights for festivals and special cases,” the official New China News Agency reported.

The announcement was a major development for the two sides, whose relations have been characterized by bickering over sovereignty disputes.

Taiwan has banned regular direct flights between the two sides since they split in 1949 when the Communist Party took over the mainland and its Nationalist foes fled to the island and began resisting Beijing’s rule. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened force if the island moves toward formal independence.

Although chartered passenger flights have been allowed before, the service has been inconsistent and limited to the Lunar New Year -- the biggest Chinese holiday.

The new charter flights would serve four annual holidays: the New Year, Tomb Sweeping Day, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival, said Wu, Taiwan’s top official for China policy. Practical arrangements still have to be worked out, but he expected holiday flights would begin for the Mid-Autumn Festival, which falls on Oct. 6 this year.

“We expect airlines can begin applying to stage the holiday flights within weeks,” Wu said.

Taiwan’s government has come under great public pressure to agree to the air service because an estimated 3 million Taiwanese travel to China each year for business or sightseeing.