The Chinese mainland is considering opening six more airports – at Chengdu, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shenzhen, Dalian and Guilin – to non-stop charter flights across the Taiwan Strait to cope with rising traffic demand, Xinhua reported, citing a senior civil aviation official. Currently, the mainland operates flights from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xiamen to Taipei and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

Gao Hongfeng, deputy director of the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China (CAAC), said that airports in another seven cities – Tianjin, Fuzhou, Chongqing, Zhuhai, Shenyang, Qingdao and Guiyang – would be designated as alternate airports for emergency landings.

Shanghai-based China Business News quoted Gao as saying that Taiwan airlines operating cross-strait charter flights are authorised to establish an organisation or a representative office in cities where cross-strait charter flight services are available.