The government will consider increasing the number of direct cross-strait commercial charter flights at the Taipei Songshan Airport while Dongfang (China Eastern) Airlines is expected to become the first air carrier based in China to open a branch office in Taiwan.

Airlines wrap up today the historic inaugural direct charter weekend flights across the Taiwan Strait.

An equal number of 36 round-trip nonstop charters are projected to fly between cities in Taiwan and China from this Friday to next Monday.

The major cities for taking off and landing in Taiwan will be Taoyuan and Taipei like in the previous week.

The cities in China offering the charter flights will still be Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou.

Passengers are suggested to contact the air carriers directly or visit their Web sites for the exact flight schedules.

The number of Chinese passengers bound for Taiwan is expected to surge on July 18 again when Beijing government officially implements the policy of allowing a maximum of 1,000 tourists to come to Taiwan each day.

The daily maximum quota was set a 3,000 people per day, but Beijing has taken a more cautious approach to temporarily keep the lid at 1,000 for the time being.

Tourism industry executives here anticipate the daily arrivals can be raised after the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games are concluded in August.

Chang Kuo-cheng, chief of the Civil Aeronautics Administration under the Ministry of Transportation and Communications here, said the Taoyuan International Airport was the first choice for the airlines in both Taiwan and China.

The Songshan Airport in downtown Taipei was the second favorite.

Air carriers that used the Songshan Airport were highly satisfied with the service at the airport.

Despite its relative smaller size in comparison with the Taoyuan Airport, more Chinese tourists and Taiwanese businesspeople with operations in China are expected to book flights that use the Songshan Airport, according to Chang.

The major advantages of Songshan include the reduced time in flight and inland transport because it is conveniently located in the Greater Taipei area.

Senior executives of China Eastern Airlines said they have already chosen Taipei to open its branch to better serve their customers.

Other air carriers in China will follow suit soon with the assistance from their business partners here.

Executives of travel agencies said that other city and county governments here are required to do more promotion campaigns if they want the airlines to use the airports in their areas.

But they also cautioned that it is useless to complain about the central government for the choices of airports by the airlines.

The key still lies mainly in the hands of regular passengers and tourists when travel agencies select the airlines and the airports, they added.