They’re home to the second and third biggest aviation markets in the world, are the two most populous nations and even share a border. But there hasn’t been a nonstop service between India and China for nigh on five years. That could be about to change, however.
Signalling a potential easing of border tensions between the Asian nations, India looks set to restart direct passenger flights to China after a long suspension of services.
Flights between the countries were halted in 2020 due to the pandemic and remained suspended despite the lifting of Covid-19 travel restrictions.
However, India’s Civil Aviation Minister Kinjarapu Rammohan Naidu recently discussed the resumption with his Chinese counterpart, Song Zhiyong, at a civil aviation conference in Delhi, the South China Morning Post reported.
While no date has been confirmed, local tourism officials are optimistic. Industry leaders are also urging the government to relax trade and travel restrictions for economic growth.
On social media platform X, Naidu added that the two sides spoke about “further strengthening civil aviation cooperation between the two countries, especially promoting early resumption of scheduled passenger flights”.
According to SCMP, Subhash Goyal, chairman of the aviation and tourism committee at the Indian Chamber of Commerce, said travelling to China from India was currently a laborious journey.
“People are going to China via third countries. They fly via Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Hong Kong,” he remarked.
“It is better that Indian and Chinese airlines restart flights [as soon as possible] rather than giving business to third countries’ airlines.”
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Goyal added that previous non-stop services had performed well, with very high load factors.
“From a commercial point of view, it makes little sense not to have direct flights,” he said.
At their peak in December 2019, there were around 540 scheduled flights between India and China per week, reported Reuters, citing data from aviation data website Cirium. Chinese airlines accounted for more than double the flights by Indian carriers.
According to aviation analytics firm OAG, India overtook Brazil and Indonesia as the third-largest domestic aviation market earlier this year.
While resumed flights between India and China may not have significant, direct implications for most Australian travellers, any capacity increases, or in this case, capacity at all, between Asian destinations, can only help reduce pressure on regional airfares. Or aid anyone considering a holiday in both destinations.
In October, Indian airlines faced unprecedented disruption, with some 90 hoax bomb threats grounding and diverting domestic and international flights.
