By Maarten Visser from Capelle aan den IJssel, Nederland
State-owned China Eastern Airlines will restart direct flights between Shanghai and Delhi from November 9, marking a major step in the gradual normalization of air links between China and India following a five-year freeze.
According to the airline’s website, the Shanghai–Delhi route will operate three times a week — on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. The airline’s online booking platform showed tickets available for sale as of Saturday, though China Eastern has yet to respond to a Reuters request for comment.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs confirmed earlier this month that commercial air services between the two neighbouring countries would soon resume, ending years of suspended routes. The announcement coincided with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s first visit to China in more than seven years, where he attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and held talks with Chinese leaders on ways to strengthen bilateral trade. Modi reportedly voiced India’s concerns about the widening trade deficit with China during the discussions.
Neither India’s nor China’s foreign ministries have commented on the specific Shanghai–Delhi service.
India’s largest airline, IndiGo, recently revealed plans to start daily nonstop flights between Kolkata and Guangzhou, further underscoring the thaw in relations. Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, which is state-backed, said at the time that it would encourage carriers to launch additional direct connections, including possible routes between Guangzhou and Delhi.
Air links between the two Asian powers were first halted during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and remained suspended after a deadly border clash in the Himalayas later that year left 20 Indian soldiers and four Chinese soldiers dead — the most serious confrontation between the two sides in decades.
The recent diplomatic warming comes amid mounting trade tensions with the United States, whose aggressive tariff policies have pushed Beijing and New Delhi to seek closer economic cooperation. US President Donald Trump last month raised tariffs on Indian imports to 50 percent, citing India’s continued purchases of Russian oil. He also urged the European Union to impose 100 percent duties on goods from China and India, a move he said was aimed at pressuring Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.
The revival of direct flights between China and India signals a tentative improvement in ties, as both countries look to insulate their economies from global trade disruptions and recalibrate their diplomatic strategies in response to Washington’s escalating tariff regime.
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