Only 70 percent of the tickets for the charter flights between Taiwan and China for the Lunar New Year holiday were purchased, officials said yesterday.
The special flights began Jan. 26 and ended Sunday. But only 1,247 of the 1,778 total seats were occupied, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said.
The number of people using the special service was far below earlier expectations because of the many restrictions on the flights, the ministry said.
The charter flights weren't the only option for Taiwanese coming home for the holiday.
Another 2,760 travelers took a 2km voyage from Xiamen to Kinmen and then flew on to Taipei, the ministry said.
The Xiamen-Kinmen voyage is quicker and cheaper, but many passengers decided to fly through Hong Kong because foul weather frequently shuts down Kinmen's airport. The airport was closed again yesterday because of fog, stranding about 400 passengers, officials said.
In related news, the Mainland Affairs Council has no plans to widen the scope of the three-small links between Kinmen and Matsu and two ports in Fujian Province as there is no need to do so at present, according to Fu Dong-cheng (
Fu's comments came in response to media reports that said the Ministry of Transportation and Communications will suggest that the council broaden the scope of cross-strait trade and transportation links and urge the council to make the links a generic case for all Taiwanese businesspeople operating in China, not just those based in Fujian Province.
Stressing that the council has no such plans for the time being, Fu pointed out that it will review its policy regarding special charter flights that were held over the Lunar New Year holidays.
Although the number of China-based businesspeople using the small three links has increased since the inception of the program on Jan. 1, 2001, Fu noted that the vast majority of them are operating in Fujian Province.
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