Originally Posted by
email2markt
I think Madrid could work by sharing lounges with Iberia, good onward connections (with Iberia) and this part of the world has poor connections to Australia currently. You can’t get to many of the traditional asian hubs from Madrid/Lisbon, there are only expensive Qatar and Emirates flights via Middle East
There are plenty of nonstop flights between Madrid and Asia (CX/KE/MU/CA/CZ/etc), and in any case an indirect via Middle East is much easier (lots more routes and more flight timings) than via Australia.