Taiwan and China clinch landmark deal on charter flights

MACAU - Taiwan and China have reached a landmark deal to allow non-stop charter flights over the Chinese New Year holidays, a move which could ease tensions and improve ties between the bitter political rivals.

The one-off deal will allow the first direct flights between the foes since 1949, and could mark a step towards ending a decades-old ban on direct air links.

"In a very short time, in a cordial atmosphere, we have come to an agreement," Pu Zhaozhou, executive director of China's Civil Aviation Association, told a joint news conference after talks in the southern Chinese territory of Macau.

However, while the flights will be non-stop, they will still have to go through Hong Kong or Macau airspace.

"The flights have to go through Hong Kong but they don't have to land," said Mike Lo, chairman of the Taipei Airlines Association.

Forty-eight flights will be allowed under the agreement, beginning on January 29 and ending on February 20, Pu said. He did not specify whether the first would take off from China or Taiwan.

Taiwan has banned direct air and shipping links with the mainland since the Nationalists lost the Chinese civil war to the communists in 1949 and fled to the island.

Travellers between Taiwan and the mainland must now fly via a third destination, usually Hong Kong or Macau on China's southern coast, adding four hours to what should be an hour-long flight.

China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has threatened to invade the self-governing, democratic island of 23 million people if it formally declares statehood.

Despite often highly charged political tensions, trade and investment across the narrow Taiwan Strait has boomed since the late 1980s, with about one million Taiwanese now living and working in China.

Taiwan businesspeople, who have poured up to US$100 billion ($143.5 billion) into China, have long clamoured for direct flights. Millions of Chinese rush home for family reunions at the start of the Lunar New Year, which falls on February 9 this year.

"This is a specific arrangement for New Year charter flights, but it is also a symbol of showing good will from both sides," said Andrew Yang, secretary-general of the Chinese Council of Advanced Policy Studies, a prominent private thinktank in Taipei.

"It is a win-win situation for both sides as China very much wants to win the hearts and minds of the Taiwanese and appear to the general public that it is doing whatever it can to resolve differences or disputes peacefully," Yang said.

"Hopefully, it will be continued after the New Year if there has been some minimum trust established between the two sides."

Taiwan, under pressure from the United States to reconcile with China, has been eager for a resumption of quasi-official dialogue, which has been frozen since 1999.

During the 2003 Lunar New Year holidays, charter flights between Shanghai and Taipei were commissioned to Taiwan airlines only and they had to fly empty to Shanghai to pick up passengers.

China refused to allow similar flights last year, fearing it could help win re-election for Taiwan's pro-independence president, Chen Shui-bian.

The new agreement will allow flights from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou on the mainland and Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan, with each side allowed to select six airlines for the routes.

From the mainland, airline executives have listed Air China Ltd, China Southern Airlines Co Ltd, Xiamen Airlines and China Eastern Air as possible candidates.

Taiwan airlines could include China Airlines Ltd, EVA Airways Corp, Trans Asia Airways, Far East Air Transport Corp, Mandarin Airlines and UNI Airways Corp.

The deal could dent business for Hong Kong airlines Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. and Dragonair, which is majority held by China National Aviation Corp.

The "golden route" between Taipei and Hong Kong is Asia's busiest and one of Cathay's most profitable as many of the travellers between Taiwan and China transit in Hong Kong.

- REUTERS