Nanjing (China), Apr. 27 : The Chinese mainland and Taiwan decided on Sunday to double flights between them and change chartered flights to regular ones for the first time, as their ties are now in "a new era of peaceful development".

Total flights between the mainland and Taiwan will grow from 108 chartered per week to 270, including regular ones, according to an agreement signed between Chen Yunlin, the president of the mainland''s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), and Chiang Pin-kung, chairman of Taiwan''s Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF).

Xinhua News Agency said the new agreement was "another huge step forward in cross-Straits relations".

They also agreed to add the mainland cities of Hefei, Harbin, Nanchang, Guiyang, Ningbo and Jinan as regular direct passenger flight terminals.

Though they didn''t specify when those new flights would begin operation, Chiang said "both sides'' aviation administrations have agreed to finalize the details for regular flights shortly". (ANI)