China-India direct flights: Eastern Airlines to resume Shanghai-Delhi flights from Nov 9

STATE-backed China Eastern Airlines is set to resume direct flights between Shanghai and Delhi starting 9 November this year.

The flights will operate three times a week on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, as displayed on the airline's online ticket sales platform.

On October 2, IndiGo Airline said that it will resume services connecting Kolkata and Guangzhou from October 26.

On October 11, the airline stated that it will start flights from Delhi to Guangzhou and Hanoi effective November 10 and December 20, respectively.

China had described the resumption of direct flights with India as a positive step, saying it demonstrated that both countries are "faithfully acting" on the understandings reached between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping to strengthen bilateral ties.

Flights timings

The outbound flight, MU563, will depart Shanghai Pudong Airport at 12:50 PM and arrive at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi at 5:45 PM local time.

The return flight, MU564, will depart Delhi at 7:55 PM and arrive in Shanghai Pudong at 4:10 AM the following day (all times are local time). Tickets for this route are now on sale.

Eastern Airlines has selected the A330-200 aircraft for this route, which is equipped with a comfortable cabin environment, in-flight Wi-Fi service, and instant messaging, said the airline.

Flights resume after 5 years

The reintroduction of direct commercial flights between the two countries comes after the Ministry of External Affairs announced earlier this month that commercial flights between Indian and China would resume after a five-year freeze.

The development follows Prime Minister Narendra Modi's recent visit to China in over seven years, for a summit meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation regional security bloc.

Modi and Xi Jinping had met on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin and welcomed the positive momentum and steady progress in bilateral relations since their last meeting at Kazan, Russia, in October 2024.

The flight services between the two sides were suspended following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. They were not restored in view of the over-four-year border face-off in eastern Ladakh, which ended in October last year.

Before the suspension, Air India and IndiGo, as well as Chinese airlines such as Air China, China Southern and China Eastern were operating services between major cities of the two countries.