While direct flights to Taiwan are still politically impossible a smooth journey across the Taiwan Straits will soon become a reality for thousands of Taiwanese doing business with the mainland.

At a joint press conference yesterday Xiamen International Airport Group and Taiwan-based Uni Air announced that they'll work together to provide daily, seamless transfer services for passengers traveling across the straits beginning this month.

According to the arrangement passengers from the mainland must first fly to Xiamen where they'll pass through a special air-sea joint operation service counter at the airport.

The counter will clear customs and handle ticket and baggage issues for the passengers before they are transferred to Jinmen by boat to take another flight to Taiwan proper via Uni Air. Jinmen is the closest Taiwanese island to the mainland and 13 kilometers from Xiamen.

Currently, Uni Air's flights connect Jinmen with the Taiwanese cities of Taipei, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan and Kaohsiung. Service counters like the one in Xiamen will also be set up in the airports of these five cities where travelers will get relevant issues settled before they make the transfer to the mainland.

"Taiwanese passengers only need to make a phone call to us to get everything settled, including the air and shipping tickets and relevant procedures," said Chen Shyong-jyh, vice-president of Uni Airways Corp. "Their baggage will also go to their designated destinations directly."

Such seamless services will cut traveling costs for Taiwanese businessmen by at least a third and the travel time would be greatly shortened, according to company executives of Xiamen airport.

For example a round trip between Shanghai and Taipei will require only five hours under the new arrangements at a cost of 2,500 yuan (US$312) compared with at least seven hours and 4,000 yuan (US$500) by non-stop charter flight via Hong Kong or Macao.

Statistics show at least 80,000 trips are made by Taiwan business people to and from Shanghai every month. There are almost a million such visits a year.

"It's really a boon to Taiwan business people and investors to have such a cooperative arrangement," said Jiang Xinda, vice secretary-general of the Association of Shanghai Taiwan Businessmen Invested Enterprises which has membership of at least 1,000. "However, we have to see how this works out in the long run."

Shanghai reportedly has the largest Taiwanese community on the mainland with the number of their registered companies being approximately 5,000. Direct links have become a pressing issue in cross-Straits exchanges with the development of economic and trade relations between the two sides.

The mainland has been pushing for the two-way implementation of "three direct links" in mail, transport and trade but the political views of Taiwanese authorities have stalled progress on the issue.

The new arrangement with Xiamen International Airport and Uni Air could be called a "mini direct link" which was a good compromise based on the current political environment, observed experts.

Editor: Wing