China Eastern Airlines will resume Shanghai–Delhi flights from 9 November, thrice weekly.
IndiGo and Air India have announced new routes following the resumption of India–China air connectivity.
DGCA reports requests from Air China, Shandong, China Southern, and Sichuan Airlines for passenger and cargo flights.
State-backed China Eastern Airlines will resume flights between Shanghai and New Delhi from 9 November, operating three times a week, The Hindu reported on Saturday (18 October 2025).
The airline will deploy an Airbus A330-200 wide-body aircraft on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Other Chinese carriers are expected to announce their schedules in the coming weeks.
The resumption follows a decision by India and China to restore air connectivity after a five-year hiatus. Following the announcement, IndiGo has scheduled flights from Kolkata to Guangzhou starting 26 October, while Air India plans to restart services to Shanghai before the end of the year.
According to The Hindu, the officials from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) said that other Chinese carriers have requested permissions for passenger and cargo services. These include Air China (Beijing–New Delhi) and Shandong Airlines (Kunming–New Delhi) for passenger flights, and China Southern (Guangzhou–New Delhi) and Sichuan Airlines (Chengdu–New Delhi) for cargo operations.
According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), India–China passenger traffic had grown at double-digit rates prior to disruptions, doubling between 2011 and 2019 to nearly 1 million annual passengers. This level of traffic previously supported roughly a dozen daily flights. IATA highlighted that, despite the population size of both countries, direct travel between India and China remains modest compared to the 330 bi-directional daily flights between China and Japan, signalling significant untapped potential.
(With inputs from The Hindu)
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