Taipei  - China Southern Airlines opened a subsidiary in Taipei Thursday to prepare for the launch of regular flights across the Taiwan Strait.

"Now that the company is set up, we can start selling plane tickets to Taiwan customers," company press officer Corinne Tseng said.

China Southern Airlines is the first Chinese airline to be permitted to open a subsidiary in Taiwan. Taiwan has also approved applications from six other Chinese airlines to open subsidiaries.

The China Southern Airlines' subsidiary has four mainland Chinese executives and 22 local staff.

Taiwan and China, split since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, launched holiday charter flights in 2003.

The two sides began weekend charter flights in July 2008 and expanded them to daily charter flights in December. The charter flights will be turned into regular flights on August 31. (dpa)