=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/news/archive/2003/01/25/i= nternational0519EST0473.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Saturday, January 25, 2003 (AP) Taiwanese airline ready to make history with charter flight to China WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer (01-25) 02:19 PST TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) -- Taiwan's largest airline plans to make history on Sunday by becoming the island's first carrier to fly a charter flight to rival China. The special air service is for Taiwanese on the mainland who want to come home for the weeklong Lunar New Year holiday, the most important celebration in ethnic Chinese societies. Direct air or sea travel between the two sides has been prohibited since Taiwan and China split amid a bloody civil war in 1949. The new flights must stop in Hong Kong or Macau before heading to the mainland, where they will be limited to landing in Shanghai. Numerous restrictions on the flights mean they're not profitable so far, but this doesn't bother China Airlines, Taiwan's largest airline, which has sold about 200 of the 370 seats on Sunday's flight, company spokesman Joseph Wu said. "The profits or loss should not be the prime agenda," Wu said. "It's historic, the first ever." All of Taiwan's six airlines are offering the charter flights from Jan. = 26 to Feb. 9. They're hoping that the service will prompt Taiwan to eventually end a ban on regular and direct transportation links with China. A new Taiwan-China route would be extremely lucrative for the airlines. Taiwan has banned direct flights, fearing that China might use the transportation links to launch a sneak attack on the island. Beijing has repeatedly threatened to use force to unify the two sides. But the hostilities have cooled off in recent years as business ties bri= ng the two sides closer. Taiwan estimates that Taiwanese have invested $100 billion in China, and about 500,000 Taiwanese are on the mainland on any given day. Taiwan's decision to allow the charter flights was one of the most recent signs of warming relations. The idea was originally pushed by lawmaker John Chang of the opposition Nationalist Party. Chang noted that hundreds of Taiwanese businesspeople were unable to return home for the Lunar New Year, which begins Jan. 31 this year, because there weren't enough flights. Chang negotiated with Chinese officials and pressured their Taiwanese counterparts to approve the flights. "I think the flights will build up mutual trust and alleviate people's concerns on the security side," he said. =20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 AP