THE Qingdao-Kaohsiung route operated by Taiwan Eva Airways launched Nov. 20, the city’s airport told a news conference.

    It is the first direct flight connecting Qingdao and Kaohsiung in Taiwan.

    The weekly flight departs 15:40 every Saturday from Kaohsiung and arrives in Qingdao at 18:35. The return flight departs 19:35 and arrives in Kaohsiung at 22:30 the same day.

    There are now 20 flights flying between Qingdao and Taiwan each week. The other airlines operating the flights are Shandong Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and China Airlines of Taiwan.

    By Nov. 15 about 150,000 air passengers had traveled between Qingdao and Taiwan this year, a year-on-year increase of 55 percent.

    More than 100,000 took direct flights, about three times more than during the same period last year.

    (Chen Ting, Zhang Xudong, Xu Bing)