Regular cross-strait flights tops agenda

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Source: CCTV.com | 04-26-2009 09:27

The third round of talks between Mainland's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, or ARATS, and Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation, or SEF, are set to start Sunday.

One of the topics at the top of the agenda concerns regular cross-strait flights.

One of the topics at the top of the agenda concerns regular cross-strait flights.

After a suspension lasting 56 years, the first charter flights took off from the mainland for Taiwan during the Spring Festival of 2005.

But there are still no direct flights between the two sides.

In 2003, 6 Taiwan airplane companies got permission to operate flights from Taipei and Kaohsiung to Shanghai. But they have to stop over in Hong Kong or Macao.

In 2004, the Taiwan authorities rejected the two-way flights proposed by the mainland.