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.

According to an official of Taiwan’s Civil Aeronautics Administration, Taiwan and China have signed a “historic agreement” to allow each side to operate 18 round-trip passenger charter flights from Friday through Monday.

China Airlines and EVA Airways Corporation, the biggest airlines of Taiwan, will reduce their flights by 10% in their attempt to deal with prohibitive prices of aviation fuel.