Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu urged the central government in Taipei yesterday to help hold off a planned halt to weekend charter flights between Kaohsiung and Guangzhou in China's Guangdong Province from September.

Speaking at a municipal meeting, Chen urged the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou to help reverse the decision by Taipei based UNI Airways, which has operated direct cross-Taiwan Strait weekend charter flights between the two destinations from July 18, as a result of operating losses.

"The Ma administration should do something in the face of the situation, as the direct flight service has been implemented for less than two months," the mayor said.

Chen reminded Ma of his presidential campaign promise that "one third" of the Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan would enter and leave Taiwan via Kaohsiung International Airport to help boost business opportunities in the southern port city. According to pacts signed in mid-June by Taiwan's quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation and its Chinese counterpart,the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, Taiwanese and Chinese carriers are allowed to operate up to 36 weekend charter flights and up to 3, 000 Chinese tourists are allowed to visit Taiwan per day from July 18, following several test runs on July's first weekend.

Director of the municipal Economic Affairs Bureau Liu Hsin-cheng suggested that the central government allow the opening of more direct flights from Kaohsiung to other Chinese destinations such as Beijing or Shanghai.

"The Kaohsiung-Guangzhou weekend charter flights lack sufficient passengers, as most of the China-based businessmen from southern Taiwan have their operations in Guangdong's Dongguan or Shenzhen rather than in Guangzhou," Liu pointed out.

"Those businessmen still prefer to travel between Taiwan and China via Hong Kong or Macau," he added. Lin Shang-chih,chairman of the Kaohsiung Travel Agency Association, complained that only a few Taipei-based travel agencies are permitted to take on Chinese tourists as clients, while those headquartered in other parts of Taiwan are excluded.

This unfair practice makes it very difficult for carriers and travel agencies outside Taipei City to make a profit, he said, adding that the central government should hold new talks with China to re-allot the cross-strait weekend charter flights and destinations.