SHANGHAI, July 19: A Boeing 747 arrived in Shanghai early Thursday, the first direct chartered cargo flight between Taiwan and China since they split more than 50 years ago, state media said.

The plane from Taiwan’s leading carrier China Airlines with an undisclosed freight shipment was given a grand send-off before departing Chiang Kai-shek airport at 1410 GMT on Wednesday for the three-hour flight to Shanghai.

“This is going to be a historic moment. It is to open a new chapter in the history of cross-strait cargo transportation,” airline spokesman Johnson Sun said ahead of the plane’s departure.

The plane arrived in Shanghai early Thursday morning, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.

According to Taiwanese media reports, the plane was loaded with 61 tonnes of equipment for a Shanghai plant belonging to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s biggest contract microchip maker.

The direct chartered flight is the result of a recent agreement struck by two civil groups authorised by their separate governments in the absence of official contacts.

The agreement also calls for chartered tourist passenger flights.

“This is the less controversial part desired by both sides,” said an official at Taiwan’s China policy decision-making body Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), adding that Taipei wanted to see more Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan.—AFP