China, Taiwan initiate historic engagement with first cross-strait flight
04 Jul 2008
Beijing: In a historic flight, Liu Shaoyong, chairman of China Southern Airlines, piloted a Chinese tourist flight to Taiwan on Friday, ending a six-decade ban on air services between the two hostile nations. The flight ended in a round of applause from passengers when the Airbus SAS A330 landed in Taipei at 8:05 am.
Liu, 49, a trained commercial pilot, captained the 95 minute flight from Guangzhou Baiyun airport in southern China to Taipei. In a captain's uniform, Liu said he'd be at the aircraft's controls for both takeoff and landing.
Only last month, China and Taiwan, agreed to start direct flights for the first time. The move signaled a rapprochement between hostile governments that have waged an incessant cold war with each other ever since 1949. China has claimed Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to take it by force if necessary.
"The road from rapprochement to peace has been a great leap forward," Liu said before the flight. "This is a very exciting moment not just for the Chinese aviation industry and for China Southern, but also for myself as an aviator."
Taiwan has agreed to admit as many as 3,000 mainland tourists a day, starting July 18.
Six China-based airlines and five from Taiwan will operate 36 weekly round trips. So far, the estimated one million Taiwanese living in China changed flights in Hong Kong or Macao.
Tourist inflow from Mainland China is expected to provide a big boost to the island nation's economy. Mainland China is already one of the biggest beneficiaries of Taiwanese financial investments.
