The direct air service between China and Portugal carried about 40,000 passengers in its first six months, Lusa reports.
The Portuguese news agency quotes the operator of the service, Beijing Capital Airlines, as saying that, on average, over 80 percent of the seats on each flight have been filled since the first flight, last July 26.
The report says Beijing Capital Airlines puts on three return flights a week from the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou to Lisbon via Beijing.
The new service helped increase the number of Chinese tourists visiting Portugal to 256,735 last year, 40.7 percent more than the year before, Lusa says.
