China To Taiwan Flights Reopened: 23 Cities Now Offer Air Routes, Some Starting Friday

Despite increasing tensions, Taiwan is resuming cross-strait flights to 23 mainland Chinese cities.

Chan Chih-hung, a spokesman for Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), said the decision to resume direct China-Taiwan flights demonstrates the island's "goodwill."

"The decision is also to demonstrate our goodwill to the mainland side, in hopes that our two sides could soon resume exchanges in an orderly manner," Chan said Thursday, the South China Morning Post reported.

Chan said Taiwan considered China's request for which mainland destinations should see direct flights restored and chose 10 cities based on the large numbers of Taiwanese businesspeople there.

Beginning Friday, Taiwan will resume direct flights to the Chinese cities of Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Qingdao, Wuhan, Ningbo and Zhengzhou.

Charter flights will be available to Taiwanese travelers going to 13 other Chinese cities, which are Shenyang, Wuxi, Haikou, Changsha, Xian, Jinan, Hefei, Nanchang, Tianjin, Wenzhou, Dalian, Guilin and Xuzhou. Taiwan's transport ministry will soon announce when these flights would resume, according to Chan.

Taiwan currently allows air access to only four cities in China, namely Beijing, Chengdu, Shanghai and Xiamen. Prior to the pandemic, however, there were more direct flights to multiple Chinese cities from Taiwan.

According to MAC, the resumption of flights will increase cross-strait flights to 209 per week. Of those, 99 flights will come from China and 110 from the island.

Chan added that Taiwan is also slated to resume limited ferry services between Taipei-controlled Quemoy and Xiamen in mainland China.

Taiwan and China only began catering charter flights in 2003, decades after the island broke off from Beijing in 1949 following a bloody civil war.

In 2009, regular direct flights between China and Taiwan were introduced.

However, the number of mainland Chinese travelers who visited Taiwan fell after Beijing suspended its official contacts and exchanges with the self-governing island following the election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen in 2016. Tsai refused to acknowledge the one-China principle.

In 2019, Chinese tourists accounted for 22% of the total tourist arrivals in Taiwan, data from the Taiwanese Tourism Bureau showed.

The resumption of China-Taiwan flights came as the island entices international travelers by offering them cash incentives.

Taiwan plans to offer 500,000 foreign tourists NT$5,000 ($165) each and 90,000 tour groups NT$20,000 ($658) each to visit the island.

According to Taiwanese Premier Chen Chien-jen, the incentives program would help the island achieve its goal of 6 million tourist arrivals this year and 10 million visitors by 2025.

In 2022, Taiwan recorded just under 900,000 tourist arrivals, a small figure compared to 11.8 million foreign travelers who visited the island in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Meanwhile, China has still not lifted its restrictions on foreign tourists.

It only began accommodating foreign nationals traveling to China for business and family visit purposes on Jan. 8.

Foreign travelers heading to China are required to present a negative COVID-19 nucleic test and fill out a customs health declaration form.