Taipei - Taiwan and China completed the first weekend charter flights across the Taiwan Strait on Monday, paving the way for launching daily charter flights and eventually regular flights between the two sides.

Under the pact signed on June 13, with endorsement from Chinese President Hu Jintao and Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, Taiwan and China were to launch a total of
36 round-trip weekend charier flights starting July 4.

Taiwan would also open its door to Chinese tourists on July 4, according to the pact which aims at easing tension and promoting exchanges between Taipei and Beijing, split since 1949.

On the first weekend, six Chinese airlines and five Taiwan airlines operated a total of 36 round-trip flights, bringing thousands of Chinese tourists and other passengers to Taiwan, and carrying Taiwan tourists to China.

There were 18 round-trip flights on Friday, three on Saturday, nine on Sunday and six on Monday.

Taiwan Premier Liu Chao-shuan called the weekend charter flights a historic breakthrough in Taipei-Beijing ties and asked Taiwan airports to prepare for more charter flights and more Chinese tourists.

However, the weekend charter flights are not bringing profits to Taiwan airlines because they are not fully-booked and the frequency is not sufficient.

For the past weekend, occupancy of the cross-strait charter flights was 80-90 per cent for flights landing at the Songshan Airport in Taipei, and 30-40 per cent for flights landing at the Kaohsiung International Airport in southern Taiwan.

"Airlines personnel said that to reap profits, they have to wait till the weekend charter flights are extended to daily charter flights, or better still, to regular flights across the Taiwan Strait," Broadcasting Corp of China reported.

Taiwan has banned sea and air links with China since 1949 when the Republic of China government lost the Chinese Civil War and fled to Taiwan to set up its government-in-exile.

In 1987, as cross-strait tension began to thaw, Taiwan allowed its residents to travel to China through a third point, usually Hong Kong.

In recent years, some 4 million Taiwanese have traveled to China each year, making the Taiwan-Hong Kong air route one of the "golden routes" in Asia.

Currently a dozen Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macu airlines operate about 80 flights daily between Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, mainly to fly Taiwan tourists and investors to China and to bring them home.

Lu Ching-chuan, from the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), said the weekend charter flights will not affect Taiwan-Hong Kong/Macau flights because the charter flights are too few.

"On a weekly basis, there are 560 Taiwan-Hong Kong/Macau flights, but only 36 Taiwan-China charter flights. The charter flights are less than 10 per cent of the Taiwan-Hong Kong/Macau flights. So in the short term, the weekend charter flights will not hurt regular flights between Taiwan and Hong Kong/Macau," he told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. (dpa)