New Delhi: India and China will restart direct flights later this month, five years after services were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and never revived because of the Ladakh border standoff.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Thursday (October 2) that the two sides had been holding technical-level discussions since earlier this year on resuming connectivity and updating their aviation services agreement as part of New Delhi's “approach towards gradual normalisation of relations between India and China”.

“Following these discussions, it has now been agreed that direct air services connecting designated points in India and China can resume by late October 2025, in keeping with the winter season schedule, subject to commercial decision of the designated carriers from the two countries and fulfilment of all operational criteria,” the MEA said.

It added that the agreement “will further facilitate people-to-people contact between India and China, contributing towards the gradual normalisation of bilateral exchanges”.

The first signal of movement came in January this year, when the two countries' foreign secretaries announced in Beijing that their governments had agreed “in principle” to resume services, alongside the decision to allow the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra again.

This had taken place just two months after India and China agreed on a patrolling agreement that ended the four-year-long standoff, following which Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan in October 2024.

The matter was taken up repeatedly at subsequent meetings, including during Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi's visit to New Delhi in August and Modi's talks with Xi at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin.

At the time, Modi had told Xi that the resumption of direct flights was part of a broader effort to normalise people-to-people exchanges following disengagement along the border.

While the Kailash Mansarovar pilgrimage resumed in July this year, negotiations for the resumption of direct flights had taken more time as India was especially looking to get more slots for Indian airlines.

IndiGo on Thursday became the first carrier to announce services. The airline said it will resume daily non-stop flights between Kolkata and Guangzhou from October 26, using its Airbus A320neo aircraft. Bookings for the Kolkata route open on October 3.

Subject to regulatory clearances, it will also launch a Delhi-Guangzhou service shortly.

IndiGo's chief executive Pieter Elbers said the airline was “proud to be amongst the first to resume direct connectivity to China from two points in India”, describing the move as a chance to “once again allow seamless movement of people, goods and ideas, while also strengthening bilateral ties”.

Direct flights were halted in early 2020 when the COVID-19 outbreak forced a global grounding of services.

While other international routes recovered, the freezing of ties after the Ladakh military standoff kept flights suspended.

In the absence of direct services, travellers were forced to route through hubs in Singapore, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and elsewhere.

Traffic between India and China fell to less than half of 2019 levels, with airlines from Southeast Asia filling the gap.

In December 2019, the two countries had 539 scheduled direct flights a month with over 1.25 lakh seats, of which Indian carriers operated 168 and Chinese airlines controlled nearly 70%.

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