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

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

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

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.