The Junta de Andalucía hopes that the autonomous community can count on a direct air link with China next year, 2025, which would increase the number of travelers from that country arriving in the region by about 188 percent, to an estimated figure of 50,000 per year.
This was stated by the Minister of Tourism and Foreign Affairs of Andalusia, Arturo Bernal, in a speech to the media in Beijing, after participating in the meeting that the Andalusian delegation led by the President of the Council, Juanma Moreno, held this Friday with the directors of Air China as part of the third day of their trip to the Asian country.
The councilor assessed the meeting with the representatives of Air China as “very positive”, and indicated that the Council remains “very confident” that the objective of having a direct flight between Andalusia –via Malaga or Seville airport– with China – from Beijing or Shanghai – “to be a real objective for the year 2025”.
#Andalusia It is an international destination that is consolidating and developing, and we want to improve communications with China to promote commercial operations and quality tourism.
We meet the company @airchina in Beijing.
Objective: Continue to move forward in direct flight. pic.twitter.com/T97C0ATgzN
–Juanma Moreno (@JuanMa_Moreno) August 30, 2024
“We are working on it,” stressed the councilor, who explained that the Council maintains “regular” contacts with Air China “to see the evolution of the demand of the Andalusian market in China and of China in Andalusia.”
Arturo Bernal stressed that The airline’s executives also positively assessed Friday’s meeting.and defended that this type of contacts “are essential to generate that space of stability and trust that is also necessary in companies” that, like Air China, are “the fourth in the world in terms of planes and passengers moved in an anus.”
Andalusia welcomes 16% of Chinese tourists
The advisor stressed that “Andalusia currently obtains 16% of the quota of all Chinese citizens who travel to Spain and do not have a direct flight”, and “this is the main argument” that the Commission has “used with the company.
He clarified that 63,000 Chinese will have visited Andalusia in 2023 with stays of more than ten days, and with an average expenditure per person per day of 288 euros, and almost 3,000 euros for the total stay, which makes him “a tourist with a high spending capacity, very motivated by culture, for historical heritage”, also for nature.
These are arguments that “are also appreciated” “in the second half of the year”, which helps Andalusia to “strongly seasonalize” its “tourist economic model, more focused on the third quarter of the year”, according to the report. .advisor.
Arturo Bernal also stressed that during the meeting they discussed “the elements that make us grow in demand”, and expressed the commitment of the Board of Directors and Air China to “work together to strengthen these elements so that, in the following months, we can As for the reality, let’s now consider the direct flight” with an airport in Andalusia, which “will fundamentally be that of Malaga or Seville, which are the international airports that have the greatest capacity” in the region, as he stressed.
The advisor clarified that currently, “the demand of Chinese tourists to Spain is covered” by the airports of Madrid and Barcelona, already “consolidated”, and Air China “is looking for its third airport in Spain for its expansion projects.
“That is why I think that we really have serious opportunities to have this direct flight in the near future,” said the Andalusian Minister of Tourism, who, when asked about the increase in the number of travelers that this direct flight would bring, replied that “in the first year”, according to the business plan that the Board of Directors sent to the company for evaluation, it would be “in the order of 188%.”
And then there would be “a some stabilization until the fourth year, during which the number of travelers This would involve almost 50,000 passengers per year to one of the two Andalusian airports considered for this connection, which would be “Seville or Malaga”, as he repeated.
Air China has nearly 40 flights to Spain, 23 to Madrid and 16 to Barcelona. It is the largest airline in China and the fourth largest in the world, operating nearly a thousand aircraft.
For the Council, the additional effect of having a direct flight – based on data collected from other airlines – is that the number of travelers would increase by 188% in the first year, starting from a “conservative” figure, which is that of Of the 63,000 tourists that Andalusia currently receives from China, 15,000 do so by direct flight.
So, in the first year, the estimate is 35,103 passengers; in the second year, 42,124, and in the third, 45,072, while in the fourth year, it would be 47,326, or nearly 50,000.
