TAIPEI: Taiwan's transportation authorities said yesterday that they will try to push for more flights between Taiwan and popular destinations on the mainland to help bring fares down to a more reasonable level.

Amid complaints that fares are still high one year after the launch of shortened nonstop flights between Taiwan and the mainland, Kuang S. Yeh, "deputy minister of transportation", said that the relatively high fares are mainly due to the popularity of some flight destinations.

"When destinations are too popular, air fares will naturally go up," Yeh said. He argued that if the government deliberately intervened to cut fares, it might encourage scalpers.

The authorities will also actively communicate with carriers in a bid to make air fares more reasonable and cheaper, he said.

Fielding questions at a legislative hearing on why the government will not step in to deal with the issue, Yeh noted that fares on some routes have come down.

He said fares between Shanghai and Taipei's Songshan Airport have fallen 17.7 percent for tickets with a validity of 30 days and 15.9 percent for tickets valid for 90 days.

According to an opinion poll conducted by the Consumers' Foundation, 74 percent of those surveyed think that cross-Straits air fares should come down.

Meanwhile, the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) said yesterday it had sent delegates to Xiamen, Fujian province to negotiate with mainland authorities for permission to fly cross-Straits direct flights that carry transit passengers and operate transshipment business.

If Beijing agrees, cross-Straits flights - currently allowed to fly between their home base in Taiwan and one destination on the mainland only - could carry passengers or cargo to a third destination, giving a potential boost to airline businesses.

One year after the signing of an agreement on cross-Straits direct air and sea travel between Taiwan and the mainland, cross-Straits travel has become much more convenient.

However, the transportation sector in Taiwan has said that remaining restrictions on cargo transshipment have limited their business opportunities.

In April this year at the third round of negotiations between the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and its mainland counterpart the Association for the Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS), it was agreed that cross-Straits cargo flights would increase from 60 flights per month to 28 flights per week or more than 100 a month, and passenger planes would be allowed to carry cargo.

CAA statistics indicate that 70 percent of the cargos transported between Taiwan and the mainland were goods to be transshipped to other destinations.

Until the ban on transshipment is lifted, the transportation sector's profits from direct air and sea shipping would be limited, according to a business source.

CAA delegates are currently in Xiamen to negotiate more flexibility in cross-Straits transportation, since issues related to cross-Straits direct transportation are not included in the fourth round of negotiations between SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung and ARATS Chairman Chen Yunlin, scheduled to be held in Taichung, central Taiwan December 21-23.

China Daily/CNA

(HK Edition 12/17/2009 page2)