The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council: Hope that the DPP authorities will remove the artificial restrictions as soon as possible and restore the normalization of direct air passenger flights across the Taiwan Strait

　　China News Service, February 22 (Xinhua) Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, said on the 22nd that she hopes that the DPP authorities will take the well-being of compatriots on both sides of the strait as the basis, remove artificial restrictions as soon as possible, and restore the normalization of direct air passenger flights across the strait.

　　On the same day, the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council held a regular press conference.

A reporter asked at the meeting that the mainland proposed to restore 16 direct flights between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait as a priority, but the relevant authorities in Taiwan have not responded for a long time. Do you have any comment on this?

Please brief us on the promotion of the resumption of cross-strait direct flights.

　　In this regard, Zhu Fenglian said that we strongly support the cross-strait airlines to significantly increase the number of cross-strait routes, and the airlines will dynamically optimize flight arrangements independently.

From February 13th to 19th, a total of 214 passenger flights were carried out on cross-strait routes, which is a considerable increase from the less than 100 flights per week before January 8th.

However, compared with the 890 cross-strait scheduled flights per week before 2020, the current capacity cannot meet the needs of people on both sides of the strait.

Especially under the unilateral restrictions of the DPP authorities, there are currently only four direct cross-strait destinations in the mainland, Beijing, Shanghai, Xiamen, and Chengdu. Overall, cross-strait exchanges are still quite inconvenient.

　　Zhu Fenglian pointed out that at present, the epidemic situation in the mainland has been well controlled, and the compatriots on both sides of the strait and the aviation industry are eagerly looking forward to the full resumption of direct flights between the two sides.

On February 1, the mainland's aviation authorities urged Taiwan to prioritize the resumption of 16 cross-Strait direct flight destinations, including Guangzhou, through the contact channels agreed by the two sessions, but no positive response has been received so far.

It is hoped that the DPP authorities will take the well-being of the compatriots on both sides of the strait as the basis, lift the artificial restrictions as soon as possible, and restore the normalization of direct air passenger flights between the two sides of the strait.