With the landing of a Hainan Airlines flight from Taipei at Beijing Capital International Airport last night, non-stop charter flights between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan over the holiday period came to a successful conclusion.

The much-applauded cross-Straits charter flights, which started on January 29, are a giant step towards hopefully ending the indirect air link between the mainland and Taiwan, ongoing since 1949.

Without direct flights, travellers between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan have to fly via a third place, usually Hong Kong or Macao, making what should be a journey of a couple of hours into a 10-hour ordeal, on average, if going through Hong Kong.

This time, the non-stop charter flights were not really direct because the planes still had to fly over Hong Kong airspace.

But the journey time was still reduced to four hours.

Such flights are warmly applauded by both travellers and airlines.

However, the benefit this time was limited to Taiwanese business people and their relatives based on the mainland.

And due to the limited capacity -only 48 round-trip charter flights were arranged under this one-off cross-Straits charter flights agreement - only a fraction of the estimated 1 million mainland-based Taiwanese business people were able to fly.

Realizing direct transport links, including by air, has long been a common aspiration of people on both sides of the Straits.

And booming cross-Straits economic and personal exchanges have also highlighted the real need to start such services.

The cross-Strait indirect trade volume reached US$63.48 billion last year.

By last September, 32.91 million Taiwanese had visited the mainland since 1987.

However, the common will of the people across the Straits has been constantly brushed aside by the authorities in Taiwan, who fear that direct transport links could undermine their "Taiwan independence" bid.

The overwhelming backing the non-stop charter flight scheme received from people across the Straits has once again demonstrated the public's desire to see direct transport links restored after a half-century ban.

The booming economic and personal exchanges also show that a case-by-case solution to meet special needs at a special time is by and large unsuitable.

A roundabout trip through a third destination is a huge waste of both time and money.

A one-off style agreement falls far short of people's expectations of a regular direct air service.

Clearly, it is high time for the authorities in Taiwan to build on the success of the non-stop flights scheme and reverse its ban on direct air links. In so doing, they would put people's interests ahead of their own narrow-minded political calculations.

Nothing is more powerful than the people's will and the Taiwan authorities should take this into account when mapping their political future.

It is hoped that yesterday's successful conclusion of the 2005 cross-Straits charter flights is not the ending but the beginning of a new chapter in our pursuit of regular direct links.