Taiwan-based China Airlines charter flight CI585 took off from
Taipei for Shanghai at 8:03 AM today, the first charter flight
across the Taiwan Straits for this year's
Spring Festival, which falls on January 29.
The China Airlines Airbus A333 touched down at Shanghai's Pudong
International Airport at 10:55 AM and took off again at 12:10 AM
for a scheduled landing Taipei at 3:30 PM.
According to China Airlines, tickets for both flights were sold
out.
This is the third time that Spring Festival charter flights have
been arranged between Taiwan and the mainland.
Xinhua reported that more than 300,000 Taiwan people working,
studying or living on the mainland travel back to the island during
Spring Festival every year.
According to figures provided by the Taiwan Affairs Office under
the State Council, more than 4.3 million residents from Taiwan
visited the mainland between January and November last year, when
indirect trade across the Straits surged to US$82 billion.
(China.org.cn, Xinhua News Agency January 20, 2006)
