India-China Direct Flights Resume After 5 Years: A Milestone in Rebuilding Bilateral Relations

"Very Smooth": Captain Of 1st India-China Direct Flight As Services Resume After 5 Years

The reinstatement of direct flights between India and China is expected to enhance people-to-people connections significantly.

Travelers on the inaugural direct flight between India and China in five years landed on Monday, as the two Asian giants lifted a prolonged air travel suspension in an effort to cautiously rebuild diplomatic relations.

IndiGo flight 6E1703 from Kolkata arrived in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou shortly before 4:00 am (2000 GMT), officially reestablishing nonstop air connections that had been suspended since 2020 due to the pandemic and subsequent geopolitical tensions.

The two neighbors, representing the world's most populous nations, remain strategic competitors vying for regional influence, but relations have gradually improved since a deadly border confrontation in the Himalayas in 2020.

The Indian government stated that the resumption of flights will strengthen "people-to-people contact" and support the "gradual normalization of bilateral exchanges".

Passengers on the inaugural flight, including many Indians seeking cross-border business opportunities, shared with AFP at Guangzhou airport their appreciation for the convenience of the restored air links.

"It was such a smooth and easy, lovable trip," expressed Rashika Mintri, a 44-year-old interior designer from Kolkata.

"I could come again and again," she added.

The warming relations with Beijing coincide with India's deteriorating ties with key trade partner Washington, following US President Donald Trump's implementation of punitive 50 percent tariffs.

Trump's advisers have alleged that India is fueling Russia's war in Ukraine by purchasing Moscow's oil.

Regular flights already operate between India and Hong Kong, while additional services from New Delhi to Shanghai and Guangzhou are scheduled to commence in November.

Abhijit Mukherjee, the captain of Monday's flight to Guangzhou, told AFP that without this new nonstop service, passengers would need to travel through intermediate airports such as Bangkok or Singapore.

"It adds up," the 55-year-old pilot remarked regarding the transfers.

However, the direct flight he had just completed was "very smooth," he said while holding a bouquet of flowers presented to him upon arrival.

Kolkata maintains centuries-old connections with China dating back to British colonial rule, when Chinese immigrants arrived as traders.

Indo-Chinese fusion cuisine remains a beloved component of the city's culinary heritage.

"It's great news for people like us, who have relatives in China," said Chen Khoi Kui, a civil society leader in Kolkata's Chinatown district of Tangra. "Air connectivity will boost trade, tourism and business travel."

'First step'

India maintains a substantial trade deficit with Beijing, depending heavily on Chinese raw materials for industrial growth and exports.

The thaw between New Delhi and Beijing followed diplomatic meetings between their leaders in Russia last year and in China in August.

The resumption of direct flights represents a "first step" in repairing bilateral relations, according to passenger Athar Ali, a 33-year-old businessman from India, as he waited to check in for IndiGo's Monday return flight to Kolkata.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held at the check-in counter, where a lengthy queue had formed for the first direct flight from mainland China to India since 2020.

Nonstop services between the two nations were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic, halting approximately 500 monthly flights.

Relations subsequently deteriorated after the 2020 border conflict between the nuclear-armed countries.

New Delhi responded by tightening restrictions on Chinese investments and prohibiting hundreds of applications, including TikTok.

India then strengthened ties with the US-led Quad alliance — which also includes Japan and Australia — aimed at counterbalancing China's influence in the Asia-Pacific region.

Both countries maintain troops along their disputed 3,500-kilometer (2,175-mile) high-altitude frontier.

However, this month, soldiers from both sides exchanged gifts of sweets during the Hindu festival of Diwali, "marking a gesture of goodwill," according to Yu Jing, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in India.

The Indian Express, in an editorial following the August meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping, stated that improving relations with Beijing "sends an appropriate signal" to Washington.

Nevertheless, bilateral relations still have considerable progress to make.

"Managing an increasingly assertive China remains India's long-term challenge," the newspaper added.