After a six-year break, Air China is set to restart flights to India this April, as air capacity between mainland China and India continues to recover from pandemic-related halts and political tensions.
Data from OAG Schedules Analyser indicates that the Star Alliance carrier will resume services between Beijing Capital International Airport and New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport starting April 21. The route will run three times weekly using Airbus A330-300 aircraft, offering roughly 1,800 round-trip seats each week and becoming the sole nonstop connection between the two national capitals.
Air China’s last scheduled flights to India took place in February 2020, when it operated nonstop services from Beijing Capital to both New Delhi and Mumbai, making it the only airline flying both routes directly. Flights were suspended soon after amid the global spread of COVID-19 and a sharp decline in bilateral relations following a fatal border clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020.
This resumption represents another milestone in the gradual restoration of air connectivity between China and India, coming after an agreement between the two nations’ foreign ministers in August 2025 to permit the return of direct flights.
Three airlines have already re-entered the market. IndiGo restarted flights to mainland China in October 2025, followed by China Eastern in November and Air India in February 2026. Existing nonstop routes include IndiGo’s daily services from New Delhi and Kolkata to Guangzhou, Air India’s four weekly flights between New Delhi and Shanghai Pudong, and China Eastern’s daily Shanghai Pudong–New Delhi route.
Although air links are slowly recovering, current capacity remains far below pre-pandemic levels. OAG figures show around 11,654 round-trip weekly seats between China and India at present, compared with 22,934 seats during the same period in 2019.
Nevertheless, capacity is projected to grow further in the months ahead. China Eastern plans to launch a new Kunming–Kolkata route in May. Combined with Air China’s new Beijing Capital–New Delhi service, total weekly two-way capacity between the two countries is expected to reach approximately 16,900 seats by early June.
Travel demand is also rebounding. Sabre Market Intelligence records show that origin-and-destination passenger traffic between India and China reached roughly 753,000 round-trip passengers in 2025, a 16% year-on-year increase, though still considerably lower than pre-pandemic numbers. The New Delhi–Beijing route ranked as the eighth-busiest city pair between the two nations last year, with around 18,800 round-trip passengers.
Prior to the pandemic and rising geopolitical frictions, nine nonstop routes linked China and India, transporting more than 1.25 million round-trip passengers in 2019. Chinese carriers held a dominant position in the market at that time: China Southern accounted for 31% of total capacity, China Eastern 27%, and Air China 17%, while Indian airlines together held less than 20%.
The gradual revival of flights has also been supported by policy adjustments. India relaxed visa rules for Chinese travelers in 2025, helping to boost travel demand and rebuild business and tourism exchanges.
