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January 29
Charter flights start for Taiwan business people and their families homebound for a family reunion during the Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year. Air China charter flight CA1087 departed from Beijing at 7:40 a.m. for Taipei and is the first mainland jet to land in Taiwan under a bilateral agreement after 56 years of separation across the Taiwan Strait. The 2005 Spring Festival charter flight program involved civil carriers from both the mainland and Taiwan and featured an expansion of terminals and two-way, non-stop flights.
In 2003, Taiwan airliners were allowed for the first time since 1949 to fly to the mainland under a similar charter flight scheme. However, owing to restrictions placed by the Taiwan authorities, the flights had to make stopovers in Hong Kong or Macao and no mainland airlines were involved.
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