Ma calls for 'at least 200' more flights to China

“The current flights indeed are still far from enough. This issue has become the subject of complaints filed to the government,” Ma said while visiting the capital's Sungshan airport.

“We need at least 200 more flights to meet the strong demand.”

His remarks come barely a week after Taiwan and China lifted the number of their weekly cross-strait flights to 370, up from 270.

Tourists from the mainland made 344,000 visits to Taiwan in the first three months to March, nearly double the figure for the same period last year.

The number of mainland tourists in this period exceeds the 270,000 visits by Japanese tourists in the same quarter, according to official figures.

Tourists from the mainland made around 970,000 visits to Taiwan last year, trailing the 1,006,000 visits by Japanese tourists.

Beijing still considers self-ruled Taiwan a part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary, after the two sides split in 1949 at the end of China's civil war.

Ties between the two sides have improved markedly since Ma came to power in 2008, pledging to boost trade links and tourism.

The two sides began direct chartered flights in 2008 and last year upgraded the charter services to scheduled flights in an agreement that also more than doubled the number of flights.

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