LONDON: No direct commercial flights have connected the world's two most populous countries for the past five years, a consequence of COVID-19 shutdowns and then simmering tensions between India and China.
So, it was a surprise to many that one of the first announcements Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and China's President Xi Jinping made at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit in Tianjin was about the resumption of direct commercial flights between the two nations.
The timing of this announcement is particularly noteworthy. The decision to resume flights is partly economic. Trade between India and China remains vast: Chinese firms continue to supply everything from machinery to consumer electronics, while Indian pharmaceutical and IT firms rely on predictable Chinese access.
Although direct flights halted in 2020, passenger traffic between the two countries did not disappear altogether. Data from OAG, an aviation analytics firm, illustrates this. In the past year alone, around 572,000 passengers travelled between India and China via hubs such as Singapore, Bangkok, and Hong Kong.
Although this figure pales in comparison with the 1.93 million passengers who used the same indirect routes at its peak in 2019, it still represents substantial demand today, and a serious potential for more. The ability to fly nonstop rather than routing through other intermediaries in Asia will unclog a channel of pent-up demand and lower travel time and costs.