Taiwan and China launched historic charter flights on Saturday with commercial jets flying non-stop between the foes for the first time in more than 55 years, raising hopes for permanent air links and better ties. Starting with China Southern Airlines, six planes from the mainland touched down one after another at Taipei's international airport, becoming the first Chinese planes to land on Taiwan soil since 1949, excluding hijacked aircraft.
Taipei had banned direct flights on security grounds and still insists the special charters fly through Hong Kong or Macau air space. China claims sovereignty over Taiwan and threatens to invade if the democratic island declares formal independence.
"I have never flown home so quickly," said Jerry Chen who, with his wife and 4-year-old son, was one of the 241 passengers on the first 80-minute China Southern flight from Guangzhou.
"If direct flights can be a regular thing, it will definitely bring the two sides closer together," said Chen, who owns a machinery factory in southern China and returned to Taipei to visit relatives over the Lunar New Year holiday.
Taiwan has forbidden direct transport links with China since the Nationalists fled to the island in 1949 after losing the mainland to the communists in a civil war.
An estimated 1 million of Taiwan's people, or 5 percent of its population, work or live in China and must normally transit through places such as Hong Kong when travelling between the two sides, adding at least four hours to their journeys.
The temporary charter services operated by Taiwan and Chinese airlines will ferry Taiwan business people and their families home for the Lunar New Year on February 9, the biggest holiday in the Chinese world.
Passengers, many clutching commemorative gifts from the airlines such as postage stamps, flags and rice cakes, uniformly expressed hopes the charters could become permanent air links.
"This is an ice-breaking flight," said Tsai Chun-hung, owner of a plastics factory in China. "It saves us time and money."
Officials from Taipei and Beijing held out hope the temporary charters could lead to a resumption of stalled talks and reduce political tension in the Taiwan Strait, which many security analysts see as one of Asia's most dangerous flashpoints.
Under the landmark agreement clinched by aviation officials acting in a private capacity, 12 airlines will operate 48 charter flights between Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in China and Taiwan's Taipei and Kaohsiung from Saturday to February 20.
In 2003, Taiwan airlines were commissioned to fly holiday charters between Shanghai and Taipei, but had to make stops in Hong Kong or Macau. Last year, China refused to allow a repeat of the charters, fearing it could help Chen win re-election.