The services remained suspended in view of the eastern Ladakh border row.
Following recent diplomatic initiatives, private carrier IndiGo said it will resume services to China, connecting Kolkata to Guangzhou with daily, non-stop flights, starting October 26.
“The first flight is scheduled to leave Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport at 10 pm today [October 26],” the official said.
Meanwhile, China Eastern Airlines also announced that it will resume direct flights between Shanghai and Delhi starting November 9, operating three weekly flights on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays operating an Airbus A330-200 aircraft.
“The resumption of this service marks the full restoration of China Eastern Airlines’ network in India, providing fresh momentum for people-to-people exchanges and economic and trade collaboration,” the carrier said in a statement.
Also read | India-China to resume direct flight operations in October after five years
The announcement follows IndiGo’s confirmation that it will restart its Kolkata–Guangzhou service on October 26, effectively reopening direct air links between India and China for the first time since early 2020.
In related news, India carriers have announced their winter schedule for 2025, wherein 26,495 flights will be operated every week from October 26, connecting 126 airports and the number of services will be around 6% higher than last year.
The number of weekly flights in the Winter Schedule 2025, spanning from October 26 to March 28 next year, is 3.46% higher than the current summer schedule, but the total number of airports connected in in the current winter schedule will be slightly lower.
The civil aviation ministry on Friday said 26,495 departures per week have been finalised to/from 126 airports in the WS25 compared to 25,610 departures per week from 129 airports in the Summer Schedule (SS25).
All domestic airlines, except Air India, Alliance Air, and Fly Big, will be operating more weekly flights than in WS24.
“Out of these 126 airports, Amravati, Hissar, Purnia and Rupsi are the new airports proposed by the scheduled airlines in the WS25, whereas operations from Aligarh, Moradabad, Chitrakoot, Bhavnagar, Ludhiana, Pakyong and Shravasti airports were suspended in the WS25,” the ministry said in a release.
