Events
- October 27, 2002: ROC legislator John Chiang proposed The Project of Mainland Taiwanese Businesspeople Returning Home, the project of "the direct charter". He said that Taiwanese airliners should be allowed to carry merchants back to Taipei at certain times, between selected airports, during the Lunar New Year.
- October 30, 2002: The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council stated their willingness to help Taiwan merchants return home. The PRC claimed the idea of equality and mutual benefit, hoping that PRC carriers could also provide services; however, the ROC government disagreed.
- December 4, 2002: The ROC government established regulations for allowing ROC business people to return to mainland China:
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- Only ROC operators could fly the routes during the Chinese New Year as a charter.
- Flights may only originate in Taipei's Chiang Kai-shek International Airport (Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport) and Kaohsiung International Airport, and may only arrive in Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport or Shanghai Pudong International Airport.
- Charters must have at least one stopover in either Hong Kong or Macau, with no traffic between the stopover and both Taiwan and mainland China cities.
- Passengers may only be merchants and their families.
- Between late 2002 to early 2003, six Taiwanese airlines applied to run the charters.
- On January 26, 2003, at 3:55 am, China Airlines flight 585 operated with a Boeing 747 departed from Chiang Kai-shek International Airport of Taipei. The crew consisted of pilots Zhang Yisong and Chen Beibei on board. After a stop in Hong Kong, the aircraft landed successfully at Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 8:52 am, and became the first legal Taiwanese aircraft to land in mainland China for more than 54 years.
- On 11:15 am, a China Airlines flight carrying 222 passengers took off from Pudong International Airport and arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 3:40am with a short stop in Hong Kong.
- On the same day, TransAsia Airways flight 386, an Airbus A320, left Taipei with no passengers at 8:20, and reached Shanghai at 12:40 pm via Macau. The return flight with 137 passengers departed Shanghai at 2 pm, and arrived Kaohsiung at 6:15 with a stopover in Macau.
- On February 9, China Airlines flight 585 was the last flight of the 2003 Lunar New Year charter services. The flight arrived with 237 travelers on board in Pudong International Airport at 11:14 pm the same day.
The period of 16 charter flights occurred between January 26 and February 9, 2003.
Read more about this topic: Cross-strait Charter, 2003 Charters
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