Photo: Courtesy of China Southern Airlines

China Southern Airlines will resume its daily Guangzhou-New Delhi route starting September 21, marking the relaunch of China Southern's India service after a six-year suspension, China Southern announced on Saturday.

It is the third major Chinese airline to restore services between the two countries, following China Eastern Airlines and Air China. 

China Southern said the route will be operated by Boeing 737 series aircraft with one daily flight. The outbound flight CZ359 will depart from Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport at 3:35 pm (local time) and arrive at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi at 7 pm. 

The return flight CZ360 will depart from Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi at 8:20 pm and arrive at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport at 4:15 am the following day.

The resumption of this route will boost bilateral trade between China and India and make travel much easier for tourists and students, the carrier said. 

The resumption comes amid warming ties between the two countries, and other airlines from China and India are also expanding their services in India. 

On April 21, Air China resumed its direct route between Beijing and Delhi, marking the first restart of direct flights between the two capitals in nearly six years. The route operates three times a week. 

On March 23, Lin Jian, a spokesperson for China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said that the Chinese side and the Indian side maintain communication on promoting cooperation and people-to-people exchange, in response to the question regarding Air China is resuming direct flights between Beijing and Delhi.

On April 18, China Eastern Airlines resumed direct flights between Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, and Kolkata, India. It marked the carrier's latest expansion of its China-India route network following the resumption of its Shanghai-Delhi service in November 2025.

China-India relations are currently in a process of improvement, and strengthening people-to-people and cultural exchanges is one of the important signs of this trend, Qian Feng, director of the Research Department at Tsinghua University's National Strategy Institute, told the Global Times on Saturday.  

The resumption of China-India routes by the three major airlines also reflects the gradual recovery of bilateral relations, and such moves will help further strengthen the foundation of bilateral ties, he added. 

A prerequisite for practical cooperation is personnel exchanges, and both sides have already recognized this. Strengthening personnel exchanges will not only facilitate cooperation but also enhance mutual trust and goodwill between the two sides, Qian added. 

Air India is set to restart non-stop Delhi-Shanghai flights in September, and the route will operate five times a week between the two cities, the Global Times learned from the airline on July 30. This will mark the carrier's full resumption of flights to the Chinese mainland, after it restored the route between the two cities in February.

On March 29, IndiGo officially launched daily non-stop flights between Kolkata and Shanghai. Previously, IndiGo had resumed the Kolkata-Guangzhou route and launched the Delhi-Guangzhou route.