Direct India-China flights could take off again after 4-year halt amid thaw in frosty ties

India looks set to resume direct passenger flights to China after a four-year halt, signalling a potential thaw in relations between the two nations as border tensions ease and industry voices call for increased economic cooperation.

Flights between the two countries were halted during the pandemic in 2020 and, except for a few repatriation flights, never resumed even after New Delhi and Beijing lifted Covid-19 travel restrictions.

India’s Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu met his Chinese counterpart, Song Zhiyong, at the Asia-Pacific Ministerial Conference on Civil Aviation in Delhi last week.

Naidu later wrote on social media platform X that the two sides had discussed “further strengthening civil aviation cooperation between the two countries, especially promoting early resumption of scheduled passenger flights”.

“I think it is high time that full-blown flights are resumed and not just to Beijing but also to Chinese provinces. There is so much lost trade between the two countries,” said Mark D Martin, CEO of aviation consultancy Martin Consulting.