A TransAsia Airways' Airbus A321 flew from Taipei to Xiamen in China's Fujian Province yesterday morning, marking the start of Taiwan-Xiamen direct charter flights, which are part of this year's Lunar New Year cross-strait charter flight services.
With 194 passengers onboard, the TransAsia plane departed from CKS International Airport at 9am and arrived at Xiamen's Gaoqi Airport at 10:40am.
Fujianese wives
PHOTO: CNA
Nearly 70 percent of the passengers on the flight were Taiwanese tourists, while some were Fujianese women married to Taiwanese. When the 194-seat plane made its return flight to Taipei later in the day, all the passengers aboard were expected to be China-based Taiwanese businesspeople and their family members.
The TransAsia flight marks the first Taipei-Xiamen direct charter flight since cross-strait Lunar New Year services began in 2004.
Meanwhile, a Xiamen Air passenger plane arrived at CKS airport at 9:25am, also carrying Taiwanese businesspeople back home for the Lunar New Year holidays.
Officials from Trans Asia Airways said that a direct flight from Taipei to Xiamen takes approximately 100 minutes, which is three or four hours less than the travel time on the usual route -- which includes a transit stop in Macau.
In addition to Trans Asia Airways, three other Taiwanese carriers -- UNI Airways, Far East Air Transport Corp. and Mandarin Airlines -- are also operating direct Taipei-Xiamen or Kaohsiung-Xiamen charter flights in the three days leading up to New Year's Day, which falls on Jan. 29 this year.
Six carriers each
Six carriers from each side of the Taiwan Strait have been authorized to operate direct cross-strait charter flights during the New Year holiday period.
Each side will offer a total of 72 charter flights between Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan and Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen in China over the holiday period. Taiwanese citizens with valid entry permits issued by the governments on both sides of the strait are eligible to take the special flights.
As Lunar New Year is just around the corner, direct cross-strait charter flight services are now in full swing. Also expected to land at Taiwan's CKS airport and Kaohsiung Airport yesterday were flights by China Southern Air, Hainan Airlines, Air China International and China Eastern Air.
FAST TRACK? Chinese spouses must renounce their Chinese citizenship and pledge allegiance to Taiwan to gain citizenship, some demonstrators said Opponents and supporters of a bill that would allow Chinese spouses to obtain Taiwanese citizenship in four years instead of six staged protests near the Legislative Yuan in Taipei yesterday morning. Those who oppose the bill proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) demanded that Chinese spouses be granted citizenship only after renouncing their Chinese citizenship, passing a citizenship test and pledging allegiance to Taiwan. The demonstrators, who were protesting at a side entrance to the Legislative Yuan on Jinan Road, were mostly members of the Taiwan Association of University Professors and other organizations advocating Taiwanese independence. Supporters of the bill, led
SILENT MAJORITY: Only 1 percent of Chinese rejected all options but war to annex Taiwan, while one-third viewed war as unacceptable, a university study showed Many Chinese are more concerned with developments inside their country than with seeking unification with Taiwan, al-Jazeera reported on Friday. Although China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary, 23-year-old Chinese Shao Hongtian was quoted by al-Jazeera as saying that “hostilities are not the way to bring China and Taiwan together.” “I want unification to happen peacefully,” Shao said. Al-Jazeera said it changed Shao’s name to respect his wish for anonymity. If peaceful unification is not possible, Shao said he would prefer “things to remain as they are,” adding that many of his friends feel
Taiwan has “absolute air superiority” over China in its own airspace, Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Monday, amid concern over whether Taipei could defend itself against a military incursion by Beijing. Po made the remarks in response to a question from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) on whether Taiwan would have partial or complete air superiority if Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warplanes were to enter Taiwan’s airspace. Po, a retired pilot, said that the Taiwanese military has “absolute air superiority” over PLA
A shipment of basil pesto imported by Costco Wholesale Taiwan from the US in the middle of last month was intercepted at the border after testing positive for excessive pesticide residue, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. Samples taken from a shipment of the Kirkland Signature brand of basil pesto imported by Costco contained 0.1 milligrams per kilogram of ethylene oxide, exceeding the non-detectable limit. Ethylene oxide is a carcinogenic substance that can be used as a pesticide. The 674kg shipment of basil pesto would either be destroyed or returned to its country of origin, as is the procedure for all