Taiwan has given permission to its largest carriers, China Airlines and EVA Air, to fly direct charters to China over the February 9th Lunar New Year holiday, the transport ministry said on Tuesday.

The approval came after Taiwan and China reached a landmark agreement in Macau this month to allow non-stop charter flights during the holiday for the first time since 1949, when Taiwan banned direct travel with its communist rival.

"China Airlines and EVA Air are two companies that both sides have approved," Billy Chang, director general of Taiwan's Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA), said.

Taiwan was still reviewing applications by several Chinese carriers to fly to the island, which Beijing claims as a renegade province.

The two sides have been arch-foes since the Nationalists lost a civil war to the communists and fled to Taiwan in 1949. Taipei bans direct flights with China because Beijing threatens to invade the democratic island if it declares formal statehood.

Taiwanese companies, which have poured an estimated USD$100 billion in investments into China since the late 1980s, have long requested direct flights and many hope the one-off new year holiday charters could mark a step towards ending the ban.

Travellers between Taiwan and the mainland must now fly via a third destination, usually Hong Kong or Macau on China's southern coast, adding four hours to what should be a one hour flight.

The first charter plane to take off from Taiwan will belong to China Airlines and is to depart Taipei at 8:00 a.m. (0000 GMT) on January 29 and to arrive in Beijing at 12:20 p.m. (0420 GMT) after flying through Hong Kong or Macau airspace.

An EVA plane will take off from Taipei at 8:30 a.m., scheduled to arrive in Beijing at 12:50 p.m., Chang said.

If approved, China Southern Airlines will become the first Chinese carrier -- except for hijacked planes -- to land in Taiwan. It plans a 90 minute flight from southern Guangzhou to Taipei, arriving at 9:30 a.m. (0130 GMT) on January 29.

Under the agreement, 48 charter flights will be allowed, beginning on January 29 and ending February 20.

The planes will fly from Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou on the mainland to Taipei and southern Kaohsiung in Taiwan, with each side allowed to select six airlines.

Only China-based Taiwanese businessmen and their families are allowed to fly aboard the charters.