Airlines from mainland China and Taiwan are allowed to operate more cross-strait flights during the Spring Festival travel rush, effective from January 14 to February 11, 2017.

The two aviation authorities across the Taiwan Strait have agreed to set no limit on the total number of cross-Strait flights added during the Spring Festival so as to better deal with the travel rush.

However, citing airspace shortage, the aviation authorities set a cap for the number of cross-Strait flights in and out of several busy airports in mainland China - 7 round-trip flights for Beijing Capital International Airport (PEK), 173 for Shanghai Pudong International Airport (PVG), 14 for Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport (CAN), 22 for Shenzhen Baoan International Airport (SZX) and 44 for Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport (HGH).

The first batch of extra flights, subject to government approval, will be announced due Dec. 14, 2016.

In addition, no cross-Strait flights will be operated at Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport (SHA) and Taipei Songshan Airport (TSA) this year. The original cross-Strait flights to/from Songshan Airport will be transferred to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE) as charter flights.

Both sides said that they will continuously expand cooperation to promote cross-strait air transport and consolidate the existing achievements.