Aviation News
- Direct charter flights across Taiwan Straits start
Date: 14-Feb-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
A BOEING 747-400 plane with 236 passengers aboard flew nonstop across the Taiwan Straits after it took off from Taipei at 7 a.m. yesterday and touched down at Shanghai Pudong International Airport two hours and 50 minutes later.
It is the first of the 96 planned round-trip direct charter flights across the Taiwan Straits for this year's Spring Festival, the most important festival for people of Chinese origin and an occasion for reunions of family members and friends.
Yesterday's nonstop flight service across the Taiwan Straits was operated by Mandarin Airlines of Taiwan.
Among the passengers were Taiwan investors' relatives who traveled to Shanghai to join their loved ones there, and some tourists, according to a ground staff member with Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines.
The plane left Shanghai at 11:40 a.m. with 391 passengers aboard and arrived in Taipei at about 3 p.m.
UNI Air, another airline from Taiwan, is operating a round-trip flight service between Kaohsiung and Guangzhou later.
Apart from major festivals such as the Spring Festival, there is no direct air service across the Taiwan Straits.
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