More flights across Taiwan Straits at Spring Festival
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The Chinese mainland and Taiwan will add more terminals and flights to cope with increasing demand of travelers during the Chinese New Year, said a mainland official Wednesday.
Taiyuan, Chuangchun, Nanning and Yantai would be added as regular cross-Strait terminals in the mainland, said Fan Liqing, spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, at a regular press conference.
This would increase the number of mainland terminals to 31, she said.
The number of flights would also increase from 270 weekly. From Jan. 31 to Feb. 28, at least 44 flights would be added weekly between the four mainland terminals of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Taiwan terminals, she said.
"At the other terminals, the airline companies can decide how many to be added," Fan said.
But at most 12 flights would be added at SonShan Airport in Taipei, she said.
Since July, 2008, the two sides have raised the regularity of aviation services from weekend charters to daily flights. They also opened three direct air routes across the Taiwan Straits, ending the situation that prevailed since 1949 that flights had to transfer through a third place.
Fan said cross-Straits flights carried about 2.6 million passengers and 46,000 tonnes of cargo from July last year to October this year.
"About 70 percent of seats at passenger flights were sold on average," she said.
