China Southern Airlines flight CZ3097 took off from Guangzhou Saturday carrying Taiwan business people eager to return home for the coming Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year. (Photo: Xinhua)

(Photo: Xinhua)

(Photo: Xinhua)

    BEIJING, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Civil aircraft of the Chinese mainland and Taiwan took off from Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai and Taipei respectively Saturday morning, kicking off the first ever non-stop, round-trip charter flights across the Taiwan Strait in 56 years.

    This was also the first time since 1949 that the mainland jetliner headed for Taiwan in normal commercial flights.

    Air China charter flight CA1087, which departed from the Beijing Capital Airport at 8 a.m. Saturday for Taipei, was the first mainland jet to take off. Some 88 passengers aboard the plane were all Taiwan business people and their families homebound for traditional family reunion during the upcoming Spring Festival,or the Chinese lunar new year.

    Charter flight CZ3097 of the China Southern Airlines with 242 passengers aboard, which left Guangzhou almost the same time as the Air China flight, was expected to be the first mainland aircraft to land in Taiwan after a nearly 100-minute journey. It will take more than four hours for the Air China flight to reach its destination.

    By press time, charter flights CA1085 of Air China and FM807 ofShanghai Airlines had also departed from Beijing and Shanghai respectively, heading for the Kaohsiung and Taipei.

    Meanwhile, charter flight CI581 of the Taiwan-based China Airlines, carrying relatives of Taiwan business people who would stay in the mainland during the Spring Festival period, also left Taipei for Beijing at around 8 a.m. Saturday.

    The Saturday flights marked the beginning of a three-week-long special charter flight scheme, under which 12 airlines of the mainland and Taiwan would run 48 non-stop, round-trip flights exclusively for the Taiwan business people and their families.

    The mainland and Taiwan civil aviation professionals reached consensus about the launch of the charter flights earlier this month in Macao. The two sides agreed to run the flights from Jan. 29 to Feb. 20 between mainland cities of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou and Taiwan's Taipei and Kaohsiung.

    The charter flights were warmly welcomed by the Taiwan business people and their relatives, who could now go home by a shorter airroute at lower cost.

    Previously, travelers flying between the mainland and Taiwan must stop over at a third destination, usually Hong Kong and Macao.

    In 2003, Taiwan civil jetliners were allowed for the first timesince 1949 to fly to the mainland under a similar charter flight scheme. However, due to restrictions of the Taiwan authorities, the flights had to make stopovers in Hong Kong or Macao and no mainland airlines were involved. Enditem