Commercial flights between the two countries will resume as tensions over the border dispute ease due to a diplomatic thaw.
Published October 18, 2025
After a five-year freeze, state-backed China Eastern Airlines will resume its Shanghai-Delhi service from November 9, as China and India resume direct air service after a five-year freeze amid a diplomatic thaw triggered largely by aggressive U.S. trade policy, the airline said on its website.
Flights will operate three times a week on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, the airline’s online ticketing platform said on Saturday.
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China Eastern did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment via email.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs announced earlier this month that civil flights between the two neighboring countries would resume after a five-year freeze.
The announcement came after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China for the first time in more than seven years for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization regional security bloc summit. While the two countries discussed ways to improve trade ties, PM Modi expressed concern over India’s sharply rising bilateral trade deficit.
The foreign ministries of India and China did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the Shanghai-Delhi flight.
India’s largest airline IndiGo had earlier announced that it would start daily direct flights between Kolkata and Guangzhou.
The state-backed Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport said at the time of IndiGo’s announcement that it would encourage airlines to open direct flights like those between Guangzhou and Delhi.
Direct flights between the two countries were suspended during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and did not resume after deadly clashes along the Himalayan border led to a prolonged military standoff later that year.
Four Chinese soldiers and 20 Indian soldiers were killed in the worst violence between the two neighbors in decades.
The diplomatic thaw between India and China comes amid US President Donald Trump’s increasingly combative trade policies.
In September, the U.S. president raised tariffs on imports from India to a tough 50%, citing the country’s continued purchases of Russian crude oil.
He also called on the European Union to impose 100% tariffs on China and India, ostensibly as part of pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.
