Photo: Courtesy of China Eastern Airlines

Starting November 9, China Eastern Airlines will launch a flight route connecting Shanghai and Delhi of India, marking the resumption of the services on the China-India route.

The route will be operated by Airbus A330-200 wide-body aircraft, with flights scheduled on Wednesdays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Tickets for the route are now available for purchase.

This route links Shanghai with Delhi, representing one of the most strategically significant air corridors between the two countries. 

As a major political, economic, and cultural center of India, Delhi maintains close exchanges with China across various fields, including trade, technology, education, and tourism. The resumption of this route by China Eastern signifies the restart of its China-India services, which will inject new momentum into personnel exchanges and economic cooperation between the two nations, according to the information China Eastern shared with the Global Times.

The Global Times has learned earlier that Indian airline IndiGo will be the first operator to resume direct flight between China and India, launching a daily service from Kolkata to Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong Province, on October 26, 2025, after a five-year hiatus. 

On October 9, in response to the resumption of direct flights between India and China announced by India's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun confirmed at a press conference that China and India will restart direct flights before the end of October this year.

Since direct flights between China and India were suspended in 2020, passengers from both countries have been forced to transfer through third destinations such as Dubai and Singapore, resulting in travel times increasing by more than 40 percent, Zhang Baoxin, an industry insider, told the Global Times on Thursday. 

The resumption of direct flights between China and India may be a small step, but it is of symbolic significance as a positive signal of warming bilateral relations, said Liu Xiaoxue, an associate research fellow at the National Institute of International Strategy under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.


Global Times