Passenger loads on cross-strait weekend charter flights have dropped since the Beijing Olympics ended, an official at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said on Tuesday.

Director-general of the ministry's Civil Aeronautics Administration Lee Long-wen, said passenger volume on the flights has been sliding for three weeks since Aug. 25.

Passenger load on the weekend of Aug. 22 to Aug. 25 peaked at 92 percent, and since then has dropped to 82.1 percent, 77.7 percent and 75.2 percent respectively over the last three weekends, Lee said.

Chen Tien-tsyh, chief of the administration's Air Transport Division, said Typhoon Sinlaku may have affected passenger volume last weekend, as many tourists canceled their trips. Also, the peak travel season is over, he said.

As of Sept. 15, some 177,530 seats had been provided on the direct weekend charter flights between Taiwan and China since the service was launched on July 7, Lee said.

A total of 150,946 tourists have utilized the service, with average passenger load during the 11 weeks of service recorded at 86 percent, he said.

Taiwan and China will hold a new round of talks on the charter flight service next month, with the main issues on the agenda likely to be increasing the number of flights and destinations.

Lee said the two sides have already reached an agreement on opening new routes and cutting the flying time.