Taiwanese “China Airlines” reports to launch charter flights, linking Taiwan with continental China. First flight will be operated on December 15 at the latest. This is the first carrier to launch such flights so far.

A schedule for the “China Airlines” flights from Taiwan to Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Shenzhen can be found on the airline’s website booking system. Currently, “China Airlines” operates so called “weekend charters”. Special feature of these charters is that the aircraft flying from the continent to Taiwan enters Hongkong’s airspace and after that continues its flight to Taiwan, but not stopping over in Hongkong. Starting with December 15 direct charter flights will be operated.

According to one of the Taiwanese periodicals’ information, “China Airlines” plan to launch regular flights from Taiwan to mainland China. It will be the first company to operate regular flights on this direction. The representative of the mainland  “Air China” says China Civil Aviation Council hasn’t distributed directions between carriers yet. Carriers from mainland China are going to operate flights linking 16 Chinese cities with Taiwan: Kunming, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Tianjin, Xian and other cities. It isn’t clear how the directions will be distributed between companies.

According to  “China Airlines” schedule the duration of the flight Taibei-Shanghai is 105 minutes, Taibei-Beijing 3 hours 10 minutes, which is 70 minutes faster than the “weekend charter”. When the direct charters are launched, the ticket prices won’t change much: Taibei-Shanghai group ticket will be 200-300 RMB cheaper, individual ticket 3700 RMB no change.