India-China direct flights to resume from October 26 after 5-year freeze

IndiGo will resume nonstop flights between Kolkata and Guangzhou from October 26, the airline said on Thursday, hours after the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) announced the restarting of direct air services between India and China later this month, after more than five years.

 

Nonstop flights between the two neighbours were suspended in early 2020 due to Covid-19, and the June 2020 Galwan clash further froze bilateral ties. Even when India resumed scheduled international flights to other countries in 2022, services to China remained suspended.

 

According to aviation industry executives, Air India will resume nonstop flights between the two nations by the end of this year. It is expecting to pick Delhi-Shanghai as its first route for services between two countries.

 

 

In a statement, the MEA said civil aviation authorities from India and China had held technical-level discussions this year on reviving direct connectivity and revising the air services agreement.

 

“It has now been agreed that direct air services connecting designated points in India and China can resume by late October, in keeping with the winter season schedule, subject to commercial decision of the designated carriers from the two countries and fulfilment of all operational criteria,” it stated. 

 

The agreement, the ministry added, would further facilitate people-to-people contact between the two countries, contributing towards the gradual normalisation of bilateral exchanges.

 

IndiGo, India’s largest airline, said its daily Kolkata-Guangzhou flights would be operated with Airbus A320neo aircraft. It also plans to add a Delhi-Guangzhou service shortly, subject to regulatory approvals. Bookings for the Kolkata-Guangzhou route will open on October 3.

 

“Our resumption of daily, non-stop flights between India and mainland China will once again allow seamless movement of people, goods, and ideas, while strengthening bilateral ties,” said Pieter Elbers, chief executive officer of IndiGo, adding that the airline aims to expand direct connectivity with China further.

 

IndiGo currently operates 1,904 international flights per week, 15.7 per cent more than in the same period last year, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Before the Covid-19 outbreak in early 2020, it had run daily services on the Delhi-Chengdu, Kolkata-Guangzhou, and Kolkata-Yangon routes, which were suspended when international flights were grounded.

 

Ties between India and China have visibly warmed in August-September, culminating in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in seven years during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit, where he met President Xi Jinping in Tianjin.

 

This calming of tensions between India and China follows prolonged tensions since the 2020 Galwan Valley clash that triggered a standoff along the Line of Actual Control. The thaw has also been influenced by external pressures: heavy Trump-era tariffs on Indian goods spurred New Delhi to diversify its diplomatic and trade engagements and open space for recalibration with China.