Shanghai was on the leading edge among Chinese mainland cities in inaugurating direct flights to and from Taiwan.

A China Eastern Airlines jet took off from Pudong International Airport at 8am yesterday carrying 150 passengers and touched down at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in Taipei about 9:40am. The trip took about 80 minutes less than it did in the past, when all flights across the Taiwan Strait had to be routed through an intermediary point such as Hong Kong.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the strait, a TransAsia Airways jet left Taipei Songshan Airport at 8am and landed at the Pudong airfield at 9:40am, becoming the first direct flight to make the journey from the island to the mainland.

Shanghai residents now have access to 40 round-trip direct flights each week.

Sixteen return flights took off and landed yesterday overall, with an average seating rate of more than 90 percent. Flights departing Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou were at full capacity.

In the past, only airports in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Nanjing offered indirect cross-Strait charter flights on weekends and holidays. The mainland's civil aviation authority is now allowing direct flights from those airports and 16 others: Chengdu, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Dalian, Guilin, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Fuzhou, Qingdao, Changsha, Haikou, Kunming, Xi'an, Shenyang, Tianjin and Zhengzhou.

Nine mainland carriers will offer up to 108 direct charter flights every week.

The new route cuts the distance between Shanghai and Taipei by 1,000 kilometers, which will help the airlines save as much as 8 tons of fuel on a single trip. By taking the direct route, the distance from Beijing to Taipei is 1,100km less than it was on the former route, and the flying time was shortened by one hour and 20 minutes.

"It's now more convenient and faster for travelers to cross the Taiwan Strait," said a Taiwan resident surnamed Lee. "I can have soy milk for breakfast at a shop in Taiwan, fly to Shanghai before noon for dumplings and have time to enjoy a midnight film as I fly back to Taiwan after meeting with clients on the mainland in the afternoon."