Since China’s zero-COVID policy ended in December, Chinese airlines have increased the number of weekly flights to China from Spain by more than five times, largely filling the void left by European competitors due to a prohibition on flying over Russia.
According to Miguel Sanz, general director of Spain’s tourism organisation Turespana, “we’ve been able to restore 60% of the direct connections (with China) we had before the pandemic, and we hope to increase this figure by year’s end and close the gap next year.”
Chinese airlines only ran three routes as of late 2022. Shenzhen Airlines is getting ready to launch three flights to Barcelona, and an unnamed carrier is thinking of connecting a Chinese city with southern Spain, according to Sanz.