Liu Shaoyong, chairman of China Southern Airlines Co., is piloting a Chinese tourist flight to Taiwan today, ending a six-decade ban that's deprived the island of visitors from its closest neighbor.

The company's Airbus SAS A330 took off this morning from Guangzhou Baiyun airport in southern China for the 100-minute journey to Taipei. The role of Liu, 49, a trained commercial pilot and former vice-minister, underscores the significance of the trip for the nation and its largest airline.

China and Taiwan agreed in June to start direct flights for tourists for the first time, signaling a rapprochement between governments estranged since their civil war ended in 1949. Allowing visitors from the world's most populous nation may boost Taiwan's economy, forecast to grow at less than half the pace of its larger neighbor this year.

"The road from rapprochement to peace has been a great leap forward,'' Liu said today at a press briefing at the airport. "This is a very exciting moment not just for the Chinese aviation industry and for China Southern, but also for myself as an aviator.''

Liu, wearing a captain's uniform, said he'd be at the controls for both take-off and landing.

Under the June 13 accord, Taiwan will admit as many as 3,000 mainland tourists a day. Spending by Chinese tourists overseas rose 11.8 percent to $24.3 billion in 2006, the fastest-growing of the top 10 nations apart from South Korea, according to the World Tourism Organization.

Ma's Pledge

The agreement follows the March election of President Ma Ying-jeou on pledges to improve ties that soured under predecessor Chen Shui-bian. Chen kept travel and trade restrictions to prevent China increasing its sway over the island that it claims as part of its territory and has vowed to take by force if necessary.

Taipei-based China Airlines took off this morning for Shanghai, the first weekly flight for tour groups by a Taiwan carrier to the mainland. Six China-based airlines and five from Taiwan will operate 36 weekly round trips.

"This non-stop flight saves me a lot of time because normally I would travel from early morning for a whole day,'' said Michael Yin, 52, a passenger on the flight to Shanghai.

Direct flights shave as much as six hours off the journey across the 100-mile (161-kilometer) Taiwan Strait. Until now, the estimated 1 million Taiwanese living in China have changed planes in Hong Kong or Macau.

Red Carpet

Chinese airlines will transport 662 tourists to Taiwan today and 3,000 in the first week, Taiwan's Minister of Transportation and Communications Mao Chi-kuo said yesterday.

"We've been waiting so long, this is a new era,'' said Ringo Chao, the chairman of China Airlines, who also was on the Shanghai-bound flight.

Taiwan's rolling out the red carpet. The tourism board is hosting a reception tonight at the Taipei Grand Hotel, where Nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek and his wife Madam Chiang once held state banquets.

"The charter flights and new tourism arrangements are very important for us,'' said Anthony Liao, president of Phoenix Tours International Inc., Taiwan's third-largest travel operator. "At 10,000 mainland tourists per year, I can almost double my profits.''

Speaking Their Language

Taiwan's tourism literature will add simplified Chinese script used on the mainland, while tour guides have been tutored on mainland idioms, according to a June 30 report by the Taipei- based United Daily News.

Taiwan companies have pressed their government for closer ties to benefit from the expansion of the world's fastest-growing major economy. The island's businessmen have invested as much as $100 billion in China since 1990, CLSA Ltd. estimates.

China's economic output of $3.6 trillion last year was more than nine times Taiwan's and the mainland's 9.8 percent expansion in 2008 will outpace the island's 4.3 percent growth, the World Bank forecasts.

"Taiwan's economy and consumption should indirectly benefit in the long run,'' said Nick Lai, a Taipei-based analyst at JPMorgan Chase & Co. "A more open economic policy and a better relationship with China will help boost domestic consumption.''

A measure of Taiwan tourism stocks has risen 44 percent this year, the best performer of 28 industry groups in Taiwan's TWSE Index, which has declined 13 percent, signaling investors' expectations that improved ties will translate into profits.

Hong Kong Detour

Besides China Southern, Air China Ltd., China Eastern Airlines Corp., Xiamen Airlines Co., Hainan Airlines Co. and Shanghai Airlines Co. will operate weekly nonstop flights. The Taiwan carriers include EVA Airways Corp., Mandarin Airlines, Uni Airways Corp. and TransAsia Airways Corp.

China Southern beat Air China in flying the first service because the flying distance from its base in southern China's Guangzhou city was the shortest among all the cities in China, Liu said. Flights from Guangzhou needed only a 12-minute detour into Hong Kong's air space, compared with more than an hour from Shanghai or Beijing, Liu said.

"We hope to eventually see direct flights that do away with the detour, which is a waste of time and fuel for the airlines concerned,'' Liu said. "It doesn't bode well at a time when we're supposed to be cutting emissions and saving fuel.''

Phoenix Tours' Liao estimates the Taipei-based company will bring 5,000 Chinese tourists to Taiwan in the second half and predicts it will handle 20,000 annually by 2010. The company's stock has climbed 51 percent this year.