China-Taiwan regular air service to start after a 60-year gap, from August 31, 2009

China and Taiwan are planning to start regular air service on August 31, 2009. This ends the 60-year-old ban on flight links imposed by the government of Taiwan at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) of Taiwan said in a statement that Taiwan and China had signed a pact on April 26, 2009, paving the way for operating regular flights between the two countries.

With the launch of the China-Taiwan regular flights, the Civil Aeronautics Administration of Taiwan added, airlines in the two countries will operate 270 roundtrip flights each week across the Taiwan Strait.

At present, 108 charter flights are being operated every week across the Taiwan Strait.

According to the Civil Aeronautics Administration of Taiwan, the regular cross-strait flights will be available from 27 cities in China – including six newly added airports in Guiyang, Jinan, Harbin, Nanchang, Haikou, and Hefei.

It added that a total of nine China-based airlines have already applied for permission to operate the cross-strait flights. These include three new carriers – Sichuan Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, and Shandong Air.

The flights operated by the China-based airlines are to land either in Taipei or Taoyuan in Taiwan.

Flights by airlines based in Taiwan have been planned to land in the Chinese cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chengdu, Tianjin, Ningbo, Guangzhou as well as many other airports where there would be demand for a cross-strait air service.

It was after the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 that China and Taiwan split.

For a number of years, Taiwan had prohibited entry to Chinese residents. Besides, those Taiwanese travelling to China had to change flights at a third place – usually in Hong Kong.

However, as tension between the two countries started easing, China (which still considers Taiwan as a “breakaway province”) and Taiwan introduced holiday charter flights in 2003. These charter flights were increased to weekend charter flights in July 2008, and then upgraded to daily charter flights in December 2009.