The return of direct flights between Barcelona and Beijing, which Air China will start operating from June 1, has given new impetus to the long-haul market at El Prat airport. The number of intercontinental destinations planned for this summer season is close to the 2019 record, when from Barcelona you could travel non-stop to 47 non-European cities. The air crisis caused by the pandemic sank the offer and just this year the airport is on its way to equaling or even exceeding that figure.

El Prat has 45 confirmed intercontinental destinations this season, according to information from the Barcelona Air Route Development Committee (CDRA), to which at least two more could be added throughout the summer (see attached graph). As for Asia, Barcelona now has three destinations in the Far East: Beijing, Singapore and Seoul, served by Air China, Singapore Airlines, Asiana and Korean Air (with three, six and eight weekly routes respectively). Before the covid crisis and the consequent closure of Asia, Barcelona airport also had flights to two other Chinese cities (Shanghai and Hong Kong) and three other Pakistani ones (Islamabad, Lahore and Sialkot), with a total of 20 routes in 2019. The economic difficulties faced by Cathay Pacific could be delaying the return of flights with Hong Kong, although its return is on the horizon. It is also possible to add a new destination between China and El Prat in August, as reported this week by the Asian country’s consul in Barcelona, ​​Zhu Jingyang. However, neither the CDRA nor the airline (Shenzhen Airlines) have officially confirmed this connection. More difficult is the recovery of direct flights to Pakistan, which had enjoyed stable demand from Barcelona thanks to the large Pakistani community in the city. Legal and security issues related to pilot licenses caused the EU to veto the company that operated these destinations (Pakistan International Airlines) in 2020.

Thus, there is a way to reach the level of direct connections with Asia before the pandemic. In 2019, Barcelona was the main Spanish port of entry or exit for air traffic with Asia, Africa and the Middle East, ahead of Madrid airport. The purpose of the CDRA (made up of Aena, the Generalitat, the Barcelona City Council and the Chamber) is to defend this position and for this the airport needs to recover direct flights and frequencies to the Far East.

Outside of Asia, from the CDRA they highlight the important recovery of direct flights with America -only Lima and Charlotte are missing and new destinations have been added, such as Calgary and Chicago-, North Africa and the Middle East, where low cost -Ryanair , Vueling or Wizzair– have fully entered. The result of this is the growth of flights with the capital of Israel. After New York, with 60 flights a week from Barcelona between its two airports (JFK and EWR), Tel Aviv stands out as the non-European city best connected to Barcelona. Arkia Israeli Airlines, Blue Dart Aviation, El Al, Vueling and Wizzair together offer 33 weekly routes.

“Barcelona airport continues to continuously improve its activity, gradually incorporating new intercontinental routes”, highlights Alícia Casart, director of the Chamber’s Office of Infrastructure Studies. Now, the recovery is not complete. “Airlines are not yet offering 100% of pre-pandemic frequencies,” Casart stresses. After the unprecedented stoppage of the covid, the availability of crew and aircraft and the billion-dollar losses of the last three years continue to weigh down the activity. The long closure of Asia, a market that is just beginning to wake up, has also made companies from the Middle East tend to be conservative in their programming with Europe, and these have always had a great weight in Barcelona.

“The figures for intercontinental flights for this summer indicate that the reactivation is still on the right track but there is still some way to go,” agrees Pere Suau-Sanchez, a professor at the UOC and at Cranfield University. A large part of the recovery of these destinations –he continues– comes from markets that are not long-haul, but short or medium-range – North Africa and the Middle East. For sample: only Morocco contributes eight destinations considered intercontinental. “The number of destinations in the most important markets, America due to its maturity and Asia due to its prospects, are still below 2019 and it will take a while longer to recover them; a dynamic that is alienated from the post-covid situation, with long-haul flights that have consolidated into large corridors”, Suau-Sanchez considers.

Casart puts Hong Kong, Shanghai and Lima as objectives to be incorporated into El Prat’s offer for the coming seasons. Some of the most coveted pieces remain in the pipeline, very difficult to attract but for which the CDRA considers that Barcelona has potential. These are Tokyo, Bangkok and Delhi, destinations not covered by direct connections that brought a large number of passengers to the capital of Catalonia before Covid. In 2018 –the latest data available– 191,111 passengers arrived in Barcelona from Tokyo via indirect flights (with a stopover), another 79,906 from Bangkok and 78,401 more from the capital of India.

In favor of Barcelona airport to attract long haul, the sector always values ​​its vast network of European flights, which could feed the coveted intercontinental routes with connecting passengers. César Trapote, professor at the Castelldefels-UPC School of Telecommunications and Aerospace Engineering, points out here that Barcelona is predominantly a point-to-point airport with a significant number of short-haul low-cost services. “Connectivity is favored under the umbrella of alliances and agreements between operators” and, at this time, “connections between low cost and long haul probably represent a low percentage, since the most favorable conditions for connecting flights do not exist”, Trapote reasons.

Despite these challenges, it will be the summer of departure to position itself in the disputed market for intercontinental flights.