People looking to celebrate the Qingming Festival began arriving in Shanghai from Taipei on Friday, with more flights scheduled in the next few days.

During the Qingming Festival or Tomb Sweeping Festival, which falls on April 5 or 6, Chinese people honor their ancestors or deceased family members and relatives.

Last June, aviation organizations across the Taiwan Strait agreed to organize chartered flights for festivals other than the Spring Festival.

Eleven airlines, five from the mainland and six from Taiwan, have scheduled chartered flights between March 30 and April 8.

Shanghai is again the key hub, with tickets in short supply.

Besides the 14 flights between Shanghai and Taipei, other planes will carry mainland passengers in the next 10 days from Beijing, Guangzhou and Xiamen to Taipei and Kaohsiung and vice versa.

Cross-Strait chartered flights will also be available during the Dragon Boat Festival, which falls on the 5th day of the fifth lunar month or June 19, and the Mid-Autumn Festival which falls on Sept. 25.

Mainland and Taiwanese airlines operated 72 chartered flights during the 2006 Spring Festival, carrying 27,000 passengers, almost five times more than the previous year.

The first non-stop chartered flights across the Taiwan Strait were launched for Chinese Lunar New Year in 2005. Prior to that there had not been direct air links across the Taiwan Strait in more than five decades.

Source: Xinhua