Guangzhou-based China Southern Airlines is expected to be the first Chinese mainland carrier to operate a charter flight across the Taiwan Strait Friday, with Taiwan's China Airlines following suit later that day from Taipei to Shanghai.

CZ Chairman Liu Shaoyong will act as honorary captain aboard the inaugural A330 flight. Other carriers chosen to operate cross-strait flights are Air China, China Eastern Airlines, Hainan Airlines, Shanghai Airlines, Xiamen Airlines, Mandarin Airlines, TransAsia Airways, Uni Air and EVA Air.

According to CAAC, there will be 144 roundtrip flights across the strait this month: 27 to/from Beijing Capital, 70 to/from Shanghai Pudong, 31 to/from Guangzhou Baiyun, 12 to/from Xiamen Gaoqi and four to/from Nanjing Lukou.

Mainland carriers are reporting brisk sales, with CA, CZ, CEA and SAL announcing that July 4 flights are sold out. Meanwhile, struggling Taiwanese carriers also should benefit, with reports that their Friday loads should exceed 90%.

An interesting political note is that the charter flights still must fly over Hong Kong airspace southwest of Taipei even though the aircraft no longer have to land at HKG. A Taipei-PVG flight will take an average of 2.5 hr. Liu and SAL VP Ding Xingguo have argued that truly direct flights that do not pass over Hong Kong will save operating costs and cut flight time to about 1 hr. Authorities have agreed to revisit the issue in future negotiations. "There is no problem from a technological perspective," Ding noted.