Taiwan and China have agreed in their latest round of aviation talks to allow more cross-Taiwan Strait flights, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday.
Although CAA Director-General Yin Chen-pong declined to elaborate on the details of the two-day talks that began a day earlier in Beijing, he said the result of the talks will be announced by the end of May.
However, he did confirm that there will be an increase in the number of direct cross-strait flights. Prior to the fifth round of talks, the CAA said it was aiming to boost the number of flights from the current 370 per week to 500 in the hope of bringing down fares that have drawn marked criticism for their high prices.
The delegation led by Yin has marked the highest-ranking talks on cross-strait flights since it took place in mid-2009.
Yin, the highest-ranking CAA official to attend the talks since they began in 2009, met for the first time with his Chinese counterpart Li Jiaxiang, head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and the two touched on various aviation issues, including topics such as procedures for granting airworthiness certification.