TAIWAN and China will launch non-stop weekend charter flights this week, the first regular service between the two sides in nearly six decades.
By closing the distance across the Taiwan Strait, observers hope it could help bridge the rift between the long-time rivals.
Scheduled to take off on Friday, the service marks a key trust-building step towards restoring daily flights between Taiwan and one of the world's fastest-growing economies.
Currently, millions of Taiwanese travelling to China each year have to make transit stops at a third location - usually Hong Kong or Macau - which add hours to an otherwise relatively short journey.
Non-stop flights - first introduced in 2005 - are available only four times a year during major holidays.
With the new weekend flights, home will be much closer for Mr Felix Huang and some 1 million Taiwanese working on the mainland.
The business executive, who works at the Shanghai branch of a Taiwanese recruitment firm, is already planning to spend more weekends with his parents in Taipei.
"Going back to Taipei used to be a seven-hour journey. With the weekend flights, home is just 21/2 hours away," said the 40-year-old. "If I can catch the evening flight after work on Friday, I may still be in time for a late dinner at home."
The agreement to expand the occasional holiday charters to weekend flights was inked last month after Taiwan and China reopened formal talks after a nine-year hiatus.
The deal also allows mainland tourists to travel directly to Taiwan without a transit stop in a third location.
Under the agreement, Taiwanese and Chinese airlines would each operate 18 return flights from Friday through Monday.
The charter service - made available to foreigners for the first time - will operate from eight airports in Taiwan, including the island's two main international airports in northern Taoyuan and southern Kaohsiung.
In China, it will operate from five airports: in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Nanjing.
For loss-making Taiwanese airlines hit by skyrocketing oil prices, the flight agreement could offer a lifeline.
They have lost US$33 billion (S$50 billion) over the past decade because of the restriction on direct cross-strait flights, according to the Taipei Airline Association.
"The weekend flights represent a rare growth opportunity in an otherwise saturated market," said Mr Chen Pengyu, a spokesman for China Airlines, Taiwan's flagship carrier.
Taiwan's government is also hoping that increased cross-strait traffic and tourism could bring it closer to its goal of achieving 6 per cent economic growth - a task complicated by slowing global growth and rising prices.
But analysts say the direct impact on the Taiwanese economy - which relies heavily on exports - may be modest and gradual.
Goldman Sachs estimated that weekend flights and mainland tourists could add 60 to 80 basis points to the island's gross domestic product.
Observers, however, agree that the potential is enormous if both sides could further expand their links.
By leveraging on its geographical proximity with China, Taiwan hopes to develop itself as a service hub for foreign investors who have operations in the mainland.
Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou has outlined plans for daily charter flights by the end of the year, and regular commercial flights within a year.
But for now, a more urgent task awaits Taiwan and China: working out shorter flight routes across the Taiwan Strait. Due to security concerns, the upcoming weekend flights will still have to pass through Hong Kong airspace
even though they are not required to stop over.
A trip from Taipei to Shanghai could take a little over an hour - if airlines are allowed to take the most direct route.
Said Mr Hector Yeh, honorary chairman of the Taiwan business association in Shanghai: "That would make flying
between Shanghai and Taipei faster than travelling from one end of Taiwan to the other."
This story was first published in The Straits Times on July 2, 2008.
