After boarding an Air Macao Airbus A319 Tuesday morning, a passenger surnamed Zhang said he would finally realize his dream of flying from Shenzhen to Taipei.

For the first time, regular flights from Shenzhen to Taipei via Macao were officially opened Tuesday.

A Taiwan businessman based in Shenzhen, Zhang said he no longer had to go to Hong Kong by bus or boat to take a flight to Taiwan.

Despite the stopover of 40 minutes at Macao International Airport, Zhang now takes half the time to fly to Taipei via Hong Kong and passengers do not need to change planes in Macao.

Eighty-one passengers were on the maiden flight to Taipei. An Airbus A319 can accommodate 126 passengers.

Before the milestone departure, 111 passengers arrived from Taiwan by the same plane at noon.

Speaking at the maiden flight inauguration ceremony, Shenzhen Vice Mayor Liu Yingli said the flights would make it more convenient for more than 100,000 Taiwan people living in Shenzhen and Dongguan. There were more than 8,000 Taiwan-invested enterprises in the two cities, Liu said.

Two flights depart Shenzhen Bao'an International Airport daily at 12:40 p.m. and 8:25 p.m., with return flights arriving at 11:50 a.m. and 7:35 p.m.

Since 1996, Air Macao has been acting as a bridge between Taiwan and mainland cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen and Kunming. Shenzhen is the 10th mainland city to have flights to Taiwan via Macao.

Air Macau's public relations and advertising manager, Gong Xiaozhuang, said the Shenzhen-Macao-Taipei flights provided in-flight "Taiwanese endorsement" service for entry to the mainland.

The indirect flight takes about three hours.

A direct flight from Shenzhen to Taipei takes only about one and a half hours, a number of Taiwan businesspeople said, who called for an early direct travel link between the mainland and the island.

(southcn.com March 10, 2004)