Beijing gives nod to New Year's flights

Beijing has opted to allow private air carriers to negotiate over the operation of cross-Taiwan Strait charter flights during the Lunar New Year holiday, the Beijing-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) said yesterday.

ARATS officials said that they had informed their Taiwanese counterparts -- officials from the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) -- by telephone that Beijing decided to let the private air carriers from the two sides of the Taiwan Strait discuss the New Year charter flights.

Beijing insists that any such charter flights must be bilateral and that it will allow the carriers themselves to engage in talks over the technical issues.

The SEF sent a letter to ARATS on Nov. 27, calling for consultations on the charter flight plan. The SEF said the two sides must meet to hammer out mutually acceptable operational terms.

As of yesterday, ARATS had not responded to the SEF appeal.

According to ARATS officials, Pu Zhaozhou (浦照洲), a Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) official in charge of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau affairs, was to meet later that day with representatives from four Taiwan carriers.

The airlines involved in the talks were China Airlines Co (中華), EVA Airways Corp (長榮), Far Eastern Air Transport Corp (遠東) and Trans Asia Airways (復興).