Taiwan airline operators said Wednesday that it would be difficult to add additional flights to the schedule for the 2007 Lunar New Year direct cross-Taiwan Strait charter flight services with the major holiday being just around the corner.

In response to a Beijing request the day before that extra charter flights be added during the Chinese New Year holiday, EVA Airways spokesman Nieh Kuo-wei said it was too late to arrange additional flights.

Noting that the number of charter flights scheduled for the 2007 Chinese New Year is much higher than the number of flights during the last Chinese New Year holiday, Nieh said that it would be technically difficult to have additional flights arranged with the holiday only two weeks away.

The Chinese New Year direct cross-strait charter flight services are scheduled to be launched Feb. 13, with carriers from each side operating a total of 96 flights during the holiday period.

Six carriers from each side of the Taiwan Strait will operate the charter flights between Taipei/Kaohsiung in Taiwan and Beijing/Shanghai/Guangzhou/Xiamen in China from Feb. 13-26.

Sun Hung-wen, a spokesman for Taiwan's China Airlines (TAIEX:2610), said whether additional charter flights should be arranged during the holiday period is an issue the airline operators will consider in terms of business interests.

A spokesman for Far Eastern Air Transport Corp. said the company can barely accommodate the domestic flight demand during the Chinese New Year holiday, not to mention putting aside extra flights for the cross-strait charter services.

Meanwhile, officials from the Civil Aeronautic Administration said that although it was rather a rush to ask the private carriers to arrange for additional flights in such a short period of time, the Mainland Affairs Council still had the final say in the matter.

Taiwan citizens with valid entry permits issued by the governments on the two sides are eligible to take any of the New Year charter flights.

This will mark the fourth year that direct cross-strait charter flight services will be offered during the Lunar New Year holiday.