Vice Minister of Transportation and Communications Chang Chiu-chuen (張邱春) will travel on the first direct flight between Taipei’s Songshan Airport and Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport on Monday, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) said yesterday.
Chang said he will be traveling with lawmakers from the legislature’s Transport Committee on a five-day visit that will also take them to Beijing, where they will call on State Council’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Wang Yi (王毅) on Thursday.
He said he has no special assignment during the trip, but will study airport and harbor establishments in both Shanghai and Beijing.
Chang said he would also visit the Beijing office of the Taiwan Strait Tourism Association, in which he serves as honorary chairman.
Other members of the delegation include Tourism Bureau Director-General Janice Lai (賴瑟珍) — who is chairman of the tourism association — several ministry officials and 10 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators.
The delegation is scheduled to return on Friday.
Regular cross-strait flights began on Aug. 31 last year and there are currently 270 round-trip flights across the Strait per week. China and Taiwan agreed on May 22 to increase the number to 370 per week, including 50 additional round-trip flights for Taiwanese carriers.
Those new flights include 14 round-trip flights between Songshan Airport and Hongqiao Airport, which begin on Monday. The other 36 round-trip flights will be distributed among local carriers, but a detailed plan has not yet been worked out and will not be implemented until July 5, aviation officials said.
Civil Aeronautics Administration statistics show Shanghai is the most popular Chinese destination in terms of direct cross-strait flights, boasting the highest passenger load factor of 82.5 percent. The factor represents the percentage of seats in a vehicle that are actually used by fare-paying passengers.
Xian is the least favorite, with a passenger load factor of just 59.7 percent, the statistics show.
In between are Guangzhou, with a factor of 79.2 percent, Shenzhen at 75 percent and Beijing, with a factor of 71.5 percent.
Taipei’s Songshan Airport leads the local field, with a passenger load factor of 79.4 percent, while Taoyuan, Taichung, Hualien and Taitung airports each have a factor of about 70 percent. Kaohsiung has a factor of 64.8 percent.
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