India-China direct flights to resume as both sides move cautiously to repair ties.

Oct 2025 : India and China have finalised a schedule to resume direct flights, with the first trips set to restart later this month as both countries cautiously ease bilateral tensions amid increasingly turbulent geopolitical headwinds. The flights will be subject to the approvals of the designated carriers based on commercial demand and “operational criteria”, according to the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

India’s largest airline, IndiGo, said on Thursday that it would resume flights to China on October 26, offering services between Kolkata in eastern India and Guangzhou in southern China. Depending on approval, IndiGo also plans to launch direct flights between New Delhi and Guangzhou soon, while the country’s other large carrier, Air India, aims to resume nonstop flights between Delhi and Shanghai by the end of the year, according to Indian media.

The resumption of direct flights would end a five-year suspension between the world’s two most populous countries. India and China initially agreed to resume direct flights in January and reaffirmed the decision in June, while India lifted restrictions on tourist visas for Chinese nationals earlier this year. The ministry said the flights were expected to boost people-to-people exchanges and pave the way for a gradual normalisation of ties.

Direct air services were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic, and did not resume after the 2020 Galwan Valley border clash that froze bilateral ties. The incident resulted in the deaths of at least 20 Indian troops and four Chinese soldiers and was the first fatal confrontation between the two nations since 1975.

Beijing also began allowing Indian pilgrims to visit major sites in the Tibet autonomous region, while India agreed to reopen discussions on restoring border trade through designated passes. Over the past year, Beijing and Delhi have taken gradual steps to mend ties as both countries have faced tensions with the United States. Multiple high-level talks have included technical discussions on resuming direct flights. Moreover, India’s strained relationship with the US, driven in large part by US President Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs, has also given impetus for improving relations with Beijing.

Months of rapprochement eventually culminated in a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit at the end of August. It was Modi’s first visit to China in seven years; however, he skipped Beijing’s Victory Day parade on September 3.

During the bilateral meeting, both leaders reaffirmed the need to maintain calm in the border areas and agreed that the two countries were development partners and not rivals. Xi also told Modi that border issues should not be the defining factor in China-India ties. India and China were both pursuing strategic autonomy, and their relations “should not be seen through the lens of a third country”, Modi told Xi, according to the Indian foreign ministry.

“It is necessary to jointly uphold international fairness and justice, and jointly promote a multipolar world and democratisation of international relations”, Xi told Modi during the summit.

Both the nation have opened their doors to each other particularly, after China had lifted its sanctions over Rare Earth Exports to India, which happens to be the Key Elements in the China-US trade war.

Team Maverick