Local airlines have sold fewer than one-third of seats on their landmark chartered flights to China as rigid schedules and the late start dampened interest, a Taiwan business body said yesterday.
Six airlines were granted special permission to fly to China for the first time since the 1949 civil war. About 500 of the 1,600 tickets on offer were sold yesterday, said Xie Li-jun, secretary-general of Shanghai's Taiwan Businessmen's Association.
Ticket sales for the 16 round-trip flights, a once-off service to help Taiwan business people get home for the Lunar New Year holiday in February, began on Jan. 8 and close on Wednesday.
Xie said 200 people had crowded into a small makeshift ticket office in the association's downtown Shanghai office when sales began, but only a handful of customers came yesterday.
"It's not below or above our expectations. Remember, it's the first time we're doing this," Xie said. "Most people were quite understanding that approval came a bit late and we couldn't get the news out in time."
Most travlers had booked their flights way in advance to avoid the holiday crush. The cheapest tickets on the chartered planes cost 3,700 yuan (US$447), about 20 percent less than a regular flight, Xie said.
The chartered flights cut their journey of at least five hours by only an hour as the planes still have to fly through Hong Kong or Macau. Nevertheless, they mark a step toward regular, direct air links, previously banned by Taipei in the interest of national security.
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