Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat Airport entered the new year with ongoing plans by key airline companies to expand their routes to and from the Catalan capital. Volotea and EasyJet have announced new services at the airport, while Spanish and Chinese authorities have signed a formal agreement to boost connectivity between Spain and China.
In December, the national minister for development, José Luis Ábalos, presided over a formal signing of the agreement, accompanied by the chairman and managing director of Aena, Maurici Lucena, and Li Xiaoping, senior deputy chairman of Shanghai CTRIP Commerce – one of the largest online travel agencies in the world and the leading provider of travel-related reservations in China.
The main objectives of the collaboration are to increase connectivity between China and Latin America through Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat and Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airports, and “contribute to improving the experience of Chinese passengers in Aena’s airport network”.
Further confirmation of Barcelona’s premier status as a global air hub has been highlighted by Norwegian, which ranked Barcelona among their most popular holiday spots with Swedish tourists for the 2019-2020 festive season.
According to a list compiled by the airline company – of international destinations based on reservations by Swedish passengers during the Christmas-New Year period – five Spanish coastal areas were included in the top-10. Málaga was the most popular, followed by (in order): Alicante, London, Gran Canaria, Barcelona, Bangkok, Dubai, Tenerife, Berlin and Krabi.
In December, Norwegian also honoured its one millionth passenger between Barcelona and the United States. Cristina Camprubí, who was travelling to New York, was welcomed by airport director Sonia Corrochano and Norwegian’s director for institutional relations, Alfons Claver.
They presented her with a free flight for two passengers to any one of the airline’s five routes between Barcelona and the US: in addition to New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami/Fort Lauderdale and Chicago.
Meanwhile, Volotea announced that, from April 2020, it would operate a second route from Barcelona, linking up with the French city of Nantes, where the company has its operations base. The new service is scheduled to offer 24,000 seats, with flights twice a week. Last October, Volotea announced the launch of a new route between Barcelona and Strasbourg, which will also operate from April 2020, with two frequencies per week and more than 24,000 seats.
Finally, EasyJet’s expansion plans for Spain in 2020 include a route between Barcelona and Glasgow from 29 March to 22 October, offering a total of 25,000 seats and three weekly flights.
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