India-China Direct Flights: Direct flights between India and China may start from May, both countries are discussing

India-China Direct Flights: India and China are discussing resuming direct flights between the two countries from May ahead of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra this summer, government officials said. India and China have agreed to resume direct non-stop flights between the two countries. Direct flight services between the two countries were stopped nearly five years ago due to the corona virus and subsequent political tensions. In January, the two sides agreed to resume direct flights and pilgrimage after five years.

A government official told Moneycontrol, "Both governments are considering resuming direct flights from Delhi and Lucknow and Kolkata to Lhasa from May 2025. Final approval from both sides is expected by the end of March." The official said that both governments are in the process of finalising the bilateral agreement for flight operations. But discussions are on with IndiGo, Air India and Tibet Airlines for flights from India to Lhasa Gonggar Airport.

Another official said that after the bilateral agreement is signed, airlines of both countries will be asked to add flights and plan their operations. Both sides are also discussing resuming flights from India to Beijing, Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu and Kunming. But this will be done in the second half of the year. Emailed queries to the ministries of foreign affairs and civil aviation and IndiGo and Air India did not elicit any response till the time of writing the report.

The neighbouring countries agreed to resume direct commercial flights after five years following a meeting between India's Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing in January 2025. After the meeting, the Ministry of External Affairs said the two countries had reached a consensus "in principle to resume direct air services".

The statement also said that China has allowed the resumption of pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar, a popular shrine of Hindu Lord Shiva, which was closed since 2020 following the coronavirus outbreak. Officials said May, June and October are the busiest time for Kailash Mansarovar pilgrims as the weather is pleasant during this time. Mount Kailash is in Ngari Prefecture of China's Tibet Autonomous Region. India and China operated more than 500 direct flights a month before operations were halted in January 2020 following Covid. Most of the flights were operated by Chinese airlines such as Air China, China Eastern and China Southern.

After several rounds of talks in October, India and China agreed to disengage and patrol troops along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh. Misri announced the agreement on October 21 and said it would resolve issues that arose in 2020. On October 23, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping endorsed the agreement on disengagement and patrolling along the LAC during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia.