GUANGZHOU: Passengers on the first direct flight between India and China in five years touched down on Monday, after Asia’s giants lifted a long-term air travel suspension as they cautiously rebuild relations.
IndiGo flight 6E1703 from Kolkata landed in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou shortly before 4 am (2000 GMT), officially resuming nonstop air links that had been suspended since 2020 due to the pandemic and subsequent geopolitical tensions.
The neighbours — the world’s two most populous nations — remain strategic rivals competing for regional influence, but ties have eased gradually since a deadly Himalayan border clash in 2020. India’s government said the resumption of flights will boost “people-to-people contact” and support the “gradual normalisation of bilateral exchanges”.
Passengers aboard the first flight — among them many Indians seeking cross-border business opportunities — told AFP at the Guangzhou airport about the convenience of the resumed links.
“It was such a smooth and easy, lovable trip,” said Rashika Mintri, a 44-year-old interior designer from Kolkata.
“I could come again and again,” she said.
There are already regular flights between India and Hong Kong, while additional services from the capital New Delhi to Shanghai and Guangzhou will begin in November.
Abhijit Mukherjee, the captain of the flight that arrived Monday in Guangzhou, told AFP that without the new nonstop route, passengers would need to travel through other airports such as Bangkok or Singapore. “It adds up,” the 55-year-old pilot said of the transfers.
But the direct flight he had just completed was “very smooth”, he added, holding a bouquet of flowers presented to him upon arrival. India’s eastern port city of Kolkata has centuries-old ties with China dating back to British rule, when Chinese migrants arrived as traders. Indo-Chinese fusion food remains a beloved staple of the city’s culinary identity.
“It’s great news for people like us, who have relatives in China,” said Chen Khoi Kui, a civil society leader in Kolkata’s Chinatown district of Tangra. “Air connectivity will boost trade, tourism, and business travel.” – AFP
