The Barcelona Air Route Development Committee (CDRA) is achieving great success in its efforts to improve the city’s connectivity with the rest of the world. In the summer of 2024, Barcelona’s airport started to provide direct flights to 57 intercontinental and 154 European destinations. This included reinstating routes to key Asian cities such as Hong Kong and Shanghai.

CDRA’s Strategic Plan for 2024-2025 has three main aims: firstly, to provide new routes to high-demand destinations; secondly, to reinstate some routes that had been suspended due to Covid-19; and finally, to make existing routes more frequent and less seasonal.

Connectivity with China as the focal point

One of CDRA’s main goals, which it achieved last August, was to reinstate Air China’s direct flights to Shanghai, which had been suspended since 2020. This route joins existing connections to Beijing, Shenzhen and Hong Kong, after flights to the latter were similarly reinstated this summer, thus achieving the best Barcelona-China air connectivity in history.

As for other Asian routes, these Chinese destinations are joining the direct flights already available from Barcelona to Singapore, Baku and Seoul. With regard to the latter, a new flight operated by the Korean company T’way Airlines was added on 16 September, adding to the service provided by Asiana Airlines.

Spotlight on America

Although connectivity with the United States is already very good, with flights to the country’s major cities, such as New York, Dallas, Miami and Los Angeles, there are plans to improve it by adding new flights to Boston, where Delta Airlines will start operating next summer, and increasing the frequency of flights to Atlanta operated by the same airline. CDRA’s Strategic Plan also includes reducing seasonal variations in current routes to cities such as San Francisco, Chicago and Washington DC.

As regards Central and South America, a direct route between Barcelona and the Honduran capital Tegucigalpa, operated by Iberojet, was launched on 9 October. Efforts are also underway to increase the frequency of flights between Barcelona and major cities such as Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.

Ongoing work for better air connectivity

All this has been achieved thanks to the various initiatives driven by the Air Route Development Committee. This includes taking part in World Routes, the aviation industry conference held in Bahrain from 6 to 8 October.

Barcelona City Council’s Directorate of International Economic Promotion was present at the event, sharing a stand with the Generalitat de Catalunya and its fellow CDRA members. Various strategic meetings with around 30 airlines and airports were held during the event to further improve Barcelona’s intercontinental air links and address industry concerns.