Direct flights between Spain and China to stop

DIRECT flights between Spain and China will cease on October 30 after just one year of operation.
Not enough promotion, complaints about the service and a lack of a strategy to take advantage of the enormous potential of the Chinese market would appear to be the key factors for the failure of this service. Some months ago Air Plus Comet stopped its flights to China, which it started in July 2005. On Wednesday, Juan Jose Hidalgo, President of the Globalia group, announced the end of Air Europa's direct flights between Madrid and Beijing, which started in May last year. The reason quoted by both companies is the lack of profitability of the flights which, during their nearly 15 months in operation, had been nearly empty many times, especially during the low season. “It is a shame, but we did all we could. Perhaps the Governments should have promoted these flights more”, said workers at Air Europa's office in Beijing yesterday. The announcement put an end to many dreams: those of the Spanish airlines, who saw China as a big market to develop, and also the more general hope of improving the Chinese-Spanish relationship, something which is always more difficult when the two countries are “further apart”. Flying between China and Spain in one of Air Europa or Air Plus Comet's flights, if there are no delays, takes 11 or 12 hours, while an aircraft from companies such as Air France, Lufthansa or Aeroflot can't do it in less than 15. It seemed like a perfect flight for the around 150 Spanish parents who travel to China each week to adopt children (Spain is the second country in the world to adopt most children from China, after the United States), or for the thousands of Spanish businesspeople who make this trip several times a year. However, it did not turn out like that. How far away May 24 2005 now seems, the date when Air Europa's inaugural flight (the Airbus A330 Pedro Duque) touched down in Beijing from Madrid. This was seen as a historic date for encouraging trade and bilateral relations. The next day, the then Spanish Minister of Industry, Jose Montilla, and the Minister of Public Works, Magdalena Alvarez, demonstrated the Government's support for Air Europa's initiative by flying with the airline from Madrid to Shanghai on official business. The optimism of that journey began to die last Winter, when Air Europa announced that it would reduce its number of flights to China during the low season.