A Boeing 747 plane with 320 passengers aboard landed at the Pudong International Airport in east China's Shanghai Municipality at around 5:56 PM on Saturday, marking the official operation of a newly launched air route between Shanghai and Barcelona of Spain.

The route, the first direct flight between the two famous cities, was kicked off by Spain's Air Plus Comet, which launched a passenger route between Madrid and Beijing five days ago.

The flight, numbered A7503 and currently operated weekly, leaves Bacelona at 10 PM local time on Friday and arrives Shanghai on Saturday afternoon. An additional flight will be added each Wednesday from October.

Return tickets of the economy class are priced at 549 euros, approximately 6,000 yuan after tax, according to the airline company, which moved to tap the Chinese market shortly after its Spanish peer Air Europa launched direct passenger flights from Madrid to Beijing and Shanghai respectively on May 23 and 24.

The direct air links between China and Spain were widely expected to facilitate tourist and business communications between the two countries.

Currently, around 30,000 Chinese tourists go to Spain annually and the figure is expected to rise to some 200,000 as a result of an ambitious plan of the Spanish government to promote their tourist attractions in China.

(Xinhua News Agency July 10, 2005)