An IndiGo aircraft (Photo: Courtesy of IndiGo)
After a five-year hiatus, flights between Chinese mainland and India are resuming as an aircraft from Indian airline IndiGo landed at Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, on Monday morning, a move that is expected to further unleash the potential for economic and trade cooperation between the two economies.
The Sunday flight departs at 10 pm and arrives in Guangzhou at 3:49 am on Monday. IndiGo told the Global Times on Sunday that the flight, which primarily serves individual travelers with a significant proportion of business and trade passengers, had a 100 percent load factor.
IndiGo was one of the first airlines to reinstate flights between the two regions and is now planning to expand its services with more direct routes. The airline has announced a second daily direct connection between Delhi and Guangzhou, scheduled to commence on November 10. This new route will be operated using IndiGo's A320 aircraft.
In addition, starting November 9, China Eastern Airlines will launch a route connecting Shanghai and Delhi, India.
The route will be operated using Airbus A330-200 wide-body aircraft, with flights scheduled on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. This service represents one of the most strategically significant air corridors between the two markets.
Passengers check in their luggage at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, India on October 26, 2025. (Photo: Courtesy of Indigo)
Data from information provider VariFlight sent to the Global Times on Sunday showed that the weekly frequency for Chinnese mainland-India flights will reach 17 from November 9.
The involved parties have shown their enthusiasm toward the flight resumption. Pieter Elbers, CEO of IndiGo, said that this will strengthen ties between the two of the world's most populous countries and fast-growing economies. Vinay Malhotra, head of global sales at IndiGo, said that the airline is confident that this will contribute toward acceleration of opportunities in trade, investment, tourism, and even education, between the two countries. The comments were made in news releases sent to the Global Times.
China Eastern Airlines said that the resumption of the Shanghai-Delhi route will inject new momentum into personnel exchanges and economic cooperation between the two nations.
A passenger on the inaugural flight participates in a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata, India, on October 26, 2025. (Photo: Courtesy of Indigo)
During the five-year suspension of direct flights, fares between China and India increased significantly, Guo Tao, a veteran travel blogger, told the Global Times on Sunday.
The Kunming to Kolkata flight was previously the most convenient air route from China to India, but during the suspension, we had to transfer to Hong Kong, then to Kolkata, and the trip was very time-consuming and expensive, he said.
The resumption of direct flights between Chinese mainland and India is like a timely aerial link, pulling the two countries back onto the track of win-win cooperation from previous stalemate, Qian Feng, director of the research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times.
In his view, it not only greatly facilitates personnel exchanges and economic and trade cooperation between the two countries but also helps restore political mutual trust and people-to-people exchanges, injecting new stability and sustainability into the development of China-India relations and laying the foundation for practical cooperation.
From a political perspective, the resumption of direct flights is a direct reflection of New Delhi's current policy adjustment toward China, marking a shift in India's mainstream perception of relations with China from being a "zero-sum game" toward a "win-win cooperation" perspective, Qian added.
When asked to comment on the coming resumption of direct flights between China and India, as well as the significance for China-India relations, Guo Jiakun, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, said on Friday that the resumption of direct flights between China and India is the latest move that demonstrates how the two sides faithfully act on the important common understandings reached between the leaders of the two countries in Tianjin. It's also a positive move that facilitates the friendly exchanges of more than 2.8 billion Chinese and Indian people.
China stands ready to work with India to view and handle bilateral relations from a strategic and long-term perspective, and move forward relations on a sound and steady track so as to deliver more tangible results for the two countries and peoples and make due contributions to upholding peace and prosperity in Asia and beyond, Guo said.
