FACTBOX: First regular Taiwan-China flights since 1949 take off
(Reuters) - Historic regular flights between Taiwan and China began on Friday in a show of conciliation between the long-time rivals that could draw large numbers of mainland Chinese tourists to the island Beijing views as its own.
No such regular flights have flown since 1949, when defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan after the Chinese civil war.
The breakthrough is seen as showing Taiwan President Ma Jing-yeou, in power since May, making good on election pledges to defuse tensions and revitalize the island's economy with closer trade and transit ties to China.
Here are some details of the new flight program:
* A landmark deal agreed on June 13 paved the way for the flights. Flights will be limited to Chinese and Taiwanese.
* As many as 3,000 China tourists could come to the island per day, though the quota could be adjusted next year.
* Taiwan media has estimated Chinese tourists could bring about $2 billion in revenues a year.
* Chinese and Taiwan airlines will each operate 18 of the weekend's 36 return flights from Friday to Monday. The number of flights will increase according to demand.
* The "weekend" trips will eliminate time-consuming Hong Kong or Macau stopovers for Taiwanese, about one million of whom live on the mainland. They will however continue to fly a roundabout route through Hong Kong air space for security reasons.
* China and Taiwan are to start discussing a direct flight route "as soon as possible" and air traffic control system coordination.
* China will first open Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Nanjing to the flights, and gradually add Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Dalian, Guilin and Shenzhen, and possibly others.
* Taiwan will have eight airports accepting the flights. One is the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, which serves northern Taiwan. The others are in Taipei, Kaohsiung, Taichung, Penghu, Hualien, Kinmen and Taitung.
* Customs procedures will be simplified. Airlines will swap representative offices within six months.
* Charter flights for festivals will continue.
Sources: Reuters, Xinhua, Taiwan media
(Writing by Gillian Murdoch, Beijing Editorial Reference Unit; Editing by Valerie Lee)
