TAIPEI: Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) has announced that regular direct airline flights to the mainland will start next month. Taiwan's biggest carriers will provide the bulk of services, according to the announcement yesterday.

Under an agreement signed by Taiwan and the mainland in Nanjing, April 26, there will be 270 flights a week, divided equally between mainland and Taiwanese carriers.

Regular flights will travel to 19 mainland destinations. Twenty-eight flights will head for Shanghai, making it the most frequent mainland destination. Hangzhou is next with 18 flights per week, Ningbo 12, Beijing and Shenzhen each will have 10 flights per week.

China Airlines will schedule 30 weekly flights. Mandarin Airlines, an affiliate of China Airlines, will fly another 25.

EVA airways has been allocated 30 weekly flights. Uni-Air will offer 25. EVA and Uni-Air are components of the Evergreen Group. Mandarin and Uni-Air will alternate flights on the route linking Taichung and Shenzhen. Another 24 weekly flights will be operated by TransAsia Airways.

CAA Director-General Lee Lung-wen said efforts are still underway to try to revive Eastern Air Transport, which ceased operations over a year ago in the face of financial difficulty. The troubled airline has been given a quota for flights to the mainland, in the hope of drawing fresh investors.

Taiwan and the mainland reached agreement last June to begin direct charter flights on weekends. In November the agreement was extended to permit flights throughout the week as well as direct cargo flights. The number of airports where charter flights could land was also expanded.