India To Resume Direct Air Services With China By Late October After Five-Year Gap

India and China will resume direct flight services by the end of this month, after a gap of five years, as part of efforts to rebuild their ties that came under severe strain following the border standoff in eastern Ladakh. The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) confirmed the development on Thursday, Oct. 2.

This comes a month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held talks on the margins of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) summit in China’s Tianjin city. India's IndiGo Airlines and China Eastern will be the first two major airlines to resume direct flights between the two South-Asian countries, according to reports.

The flight services between the two sides were suspended following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. They were not restored in view of the over four-year border face-off in eastern Ladakh, which ended in October last year.

'Since earlier this year, as part of the government's approach towards gradual normalisation of relations between India and China, the civil aviation authorities of the two countries have been engaged in technical-level discussions on resuming direct air services between the two countries and on a revised air services agreement,' the MEA said.

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 and subject to commercial decision of the designated carriers from the two countries and fulfilment of all operational criteria.

'This agreement of the civil aviation authorities will further facilitate people-to-people contact between India and China, contributing towards the gradual normalisation of bilateral exchanges,' the MEA said in a statement. In a press release, the Ministry of Civil Aviation confirmed India and China will resume direct air services by the end of October.

'This follows continuous technical-level engagement between civil aviation authorities as part of broader efforts to normalise bilateral ties. The move will greatly enhance air connectivity, support people-to-people exchanges and contribute to the strengthening of economic collaboration between the two countries,' added MEA.

Following the recent diplomatic initiatives, IndiGo, in a statement on Thursday, said it will resume services to Mainland China, connecting Kolkata to Guangzhou (CAN) with daily, non-stop flights, starting Oct. 26. Subject to regulatory approvals, IndiGo will start direct flights between Delhi and Guangzhou. It will use Airbus A320 neo aircraft to operate the services.

'We are delighted to announce the resumption of daily, non-stop flights between India and mainland China. We are proud to be amongst the first to resume direct connectivity to China from two points in India... With this very important step, we are looking at introducing more direct flights into China,' IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers said.

In his remarks at the meeting with Xi on Aug. 31, PM Modi had said that direct flights are being resumed between the two countries. India-China relations plunged to their lowest point since the 1962 war following the Galwan Valley clashes in June 2020. Following a series of diplomatic and military talks, the two sides withdrew their troops from several friction points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh.

Last year, the two sides firmed up a disengagement pact for Depsang and Demchok, the last two friction points in eastern Ladakh. Days after the agreement was finalised, PM Modi and President Xi held talks in Russia's Kazan city in the BRICS summit and took decisions to improve the ties. In the last few months, the two sides have taken a series of measures to repair the ties that included the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra.