When IndiGo flight 6E-1703 lifted off from Kolkata’s Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport at 10 pm on Sunday, October 26, it appeared at first to be just another of IndiGo’s 2,200 daily departures. Yet this particular flight made history — it marked the first direct commercial service between India and the People’s Republic of China in almost five years.
The Airbus A320neo aircraft, flying from Kolkata to Guangzhou, was packed with 176 passengers, signalling the strong pent-up demand for travel between the two Asian giants. Regular air connectivity between India and China had been suspended since early 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic had initially grounded flights across the globe, but it was the deadly clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that pushed Sino-Indian relations to their lowest point in decades.
While cargo flights continued due to robust bilateral trade — which still totals over $115 billion annually — passenger routes vanished, forcing thousands of travellers to take costly detours through Hong Kong, Bangkok or Singapore. To put the impact in perspective, over 2,500 direct flights connected the two countries in 2019, operated by airlines such as Air India, IndiGo, China Southern and China Eastern.
Interestingly, the thaw in relations that allowed flights to resume has been linked indirectly to global diplomatic shifts. The recent cooling of India-US relations under President Donald Trump’s administration — which introduced trade barriers and tariffs on Indian goods — prompted New Delhi to recalibrate its foreign policy. This culminated in a rare meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Tianjin two months ago. Among the outcomes of the talks was a decision to reopen the skies, symbolising a cautious normalisation of ties.
Following the success of the Kolkata-Guangzhou route, IndiGo has already announced a new Delhi-Guangzhou service starting in early November. China Eastern Airlines plans to reintroduce direct flights between Shanghai and Delhi, while Air India is expected to reinstate its Beijing and Shanghai connections by the end of this year. Industry insiders suggest more routes are likely to follow, linking major business hubs such as Mumbai, Chennai, Shenzhen and Kunming.
Aviation experts point out that the delay in fully restoring connectivity is not due to a lack of demand but rather a shortage of aircraft and spare parts — challenges that have affected global airlines since the pandemic disrupted supply chains.