‘Cannot move forward unless …’: Why India is resisting China’s request to resume direct flights

NEW DELHI: China is pushing India to restart direct passenger flights after a four-year hiatus, though India remains hesitant due to ongoing tensions over a border dispute.
The diplomatic strain stems from a major military confrontation in June 2020 that resulted in the deaths of 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers. Thousands of troops from both nations are still deployed along their shared border.
Since the clash, India has restricted Chinese investments, banned numerous popular apps, and halted passenger flights between the two countries, although cargo flights continue to operate.While both economies stand to gain from resuming direct flights, the stakes are particularly high for China, where recovery in international travel post-COVID-19 has been sluggish, in contrast to India’s booming aviation sector.
Over the past year, China’s government and airlines have approached India’s civil aviation authorities several times to restore direct air links.
“We hope the Indian side will work with China in the same direction for the early resumption of direct flights,” China’s Foreign Ministry told Reuters last week, highlighting that resuming flights would benefit both countries.
However, a senior Indian official responded, “Unless there is peace and tranquillity on the border, the rest of the relationship cannot move forward.”
Indian airlines, including Indigo, and Chinese carriers are discussing with their respective governments the feasibility of resuming direct routes. “When the time is right and the governments come to a mutual understanding of how to move forward, we’ll assess the market,” said Pieter Elbers, CEO of Indigo, India’s largest airline.
Direct flights between India and China hit a peak in December 2019, with 539 scheduled flights, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. Chinese carriers accounted for 371 of those flights, while India’s airlines scheduled 168.
These flights were halted in early 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic escalated. Despite the resumption of international travel restrictions being lifted a year later in India and early 2023 in China, direct flights have not resumed, except for minimal Covid-19 repatriation flights. Travelers must now rely on connecting flights through hubs like Hong Kong, Dubai, or Singapore. This has extended travel time from less than six hours to upwards of 10 and diverted business—including lucrative through traffic to the United States—to carriers such as Emirates, Singapore Airlines, and Cathay Pacific.
Air India CEO Campbell Wilson added, “Direct India-China flights ‘would seem to be a huge potential market,’ but for now there are factors at play ‘beyond our level.'”