BARCELONA — Friday saw an Air China Airbus 300-200 take off on its inaugural flight between Barcelona, Spain and Shanghai, China.

Air China will operate three direct flights a week - on Tuesday, Friday and Sunday - between the two cities.

The opening of the route means Barcelona becomes the fifth European city to have direct flights to Shanghai and Beijing. Air China's inauguration of the Barcelona-Beijing route took place in May 2014.

The airline highlighted that the departure and arrival times of 12:30 pm local time with a scheduled arrival in Shanghai at 6:40 am, took into consideration the needs of the business communities in Shanghai and Barcelona.

Business people will be able to arrive in China early on Monday morning and return to Spain on Friday evening, as well the convenience of making connecting flights.

Air China said that in 2016, around 100,400 passengers flew between Barcelona and Shanghai, despite there being no direct connections.