On July 10, China Eastern Airlines announced brisk ticket sales for weekend charter flights across the Taiwan Strait over the next eight weeks.

Currently the airlines operate four round-trip weekend flights across the strait, with two on Fridays, one on Sundays and one Mondays. A spokesman envisioned more flights in the future as demands grow across the strait.

China Eastern is among the six airlines from the mainland and five from Taiwan which are operating round-trip flights of the weekend service between five cities in the mainland and five in Taiwan.

Under an agreement signed by the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait and the Taiwan-based Straits Exchange Foundation on June 13, mainland tourists can visit Taiwan by charter flights on weekends from July.

The first weekend charter flights flew across the strait on July 4, carrying excited mainland tourists and Taiwan residents joyful at the shorter and cheaper journey.