Early Times Report
BEIJING, Apr 22: Air China has resumed its non-stop Delhi-Beijing flight, reconnecting the flight services between the two capitals.
With the resumption of the Delhi-Beijing flight, air connectivity between several cities of the two countries, disrupted since 2020 due to COVID-19 and then the military standoff in Eastern Ladakh, has been restored.
Air China has resumed non-stop flights connecting Beijing and Delhi on Tuesday, the airline said on its Facebook account.
The Beijing-Delhi flights will operate on Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays, using Airbus A330-200/300 aircraft, the announcement said.
On April 18, China Eastern Airlines resumed its direct flight between Kunming, China’s southwestern Yunnan Province, and Kolkata, India. It was the carrier’s latest expansion of its China-India route network following the resumption of the Shanghai-Delhi route in November 2025.
China Eastern Airlines said that the route, with six weekly round-trip flights using Boeing 737 aircraft, will add more convenience to travellers between the two countries. India’s airlines too are now operating flights to Chinese cities. IndiGo launched daily direct flights between Kolkata and Shanghai on March 29.
Earlier, IndiGo resumed the Kolkata-Guangzhou route and launched the DelhiGuangzhou route.
With the introduction of the Kolkata-Shanghai route, IndiGo said it will continue to enrich travel options between China and India, effectively meeting the growing demand for economic, trade, and tourism exchanges between the world’s two most populous nations, China’s state-run Global Times reported. According to the latest operational data for April, IndiGo has maintained an overall passenger load factor between 68 per cent and 85 per cent on multiple China-India routes.
Popular routes such as Delhi-Guangzhou and Kolkata-Guangzhou have shown particularly outstanding performances, reflecting a stable and positive operational trend, the report said.
More airlines from both sides are increasing their services, which have positive significance for further consolidating the momentum of bilateral ties.
It also reflects India’s further pragmatic adjustments, including in its China policy, Qian Feng, director of the Research Department at Tsinghua University’s National Strategy Institute, told the Global Times.
Qian added that this trend not only facilitates personnel exchanges between the two countries but also represents more practical measures to reduce supply chain costs and support travel for technology companies and the manufacturing sector.
The frequent exchanges have come amid warming relations between China and India.
Last month, India approved relaxing restrictions on Chinese investments in selected sectors to help ease a capital squeeze and mark a reset of economic ties after six years of friction. |
