NEW DELHI (Realist English). India and China will restart direct flights between select cities later this month, ending a five-year suspension that began during the Covid-19 pandemic and was prolonged by deteriorating political relations.
India’s embassy in Beijing said on Thursday that services would resume by late October, depending on commercial carriers’ decisions, as part of a “gradual normalization” of ties. India’s largest airline, IndiGo, confirmed it will relaunch flights from Kolkata to Guangzhou on October 26.
The announcement follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to China in September — his first in seven years — where he attended a regional security forum aimed at rebuilding trust.
Relations between the two countries soured sharply in 2020 after deadly clashes in the Himalayas killed 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers, halting high-level political contact. The return of direct flights marks one of the most tangible steps toward restoring bilateral exchanges since then, though broader tensions remain unresolved.
