India gives reasons for refusing to resume direct flights with China

China is pressing India to restart direct passenger flights after a four-year hiatus, but New Delhi is resisting as a border dispute continues to weigh on relations between the world's two most populous nations, Reuters news agency reported on June 22, citing Indian officials.

India-China relations have been strained since the biggest military confrontation in decades on their disputed Himalayan border left 20 Indian soldiers and at least four Chinese soldiers dead in June 2020. Thousands of troops on each side remain deployed along the border.

Since the clash, India has restricted investment from Chinese companies, banned hundreds of popular apps and cut off passenger routes, although direct cargo flights still operate between the two Asian giants.

Direct flights would benefit both economies, but the risks would be higher for China, where the recovery in outbound tourism from the COVID-19 pandemic is slowing, while India's aviation industry is booming.

Several times over the past year or so, the Chinese government and airlines have asked India's civil aviation authority to re-establish direct flights, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters, with one saying China saw this as a "big problem".

“We hope the Indian side will work with China to resume direct flights as soon as possible,” China’s foreign ministry told Reuters in a statement last week.

However, a senior Indian official said: “Unless there is peace and stability on the border, the rest of the relationship cannot move forward.”

Indian airlines are holding discussions with authorities in New Delhi, while Chinese airlines are in talks with their governments about resuming direct flights, Pieter Elbers, chief executive of Indigo, India's largest airline, told Reuters.

Beijing has repeatedly objected to India's increased scrutiny of Chinese companies since 2020. Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi told the Indian government this year that "confidence-building" measures were needed as component suppliers were wary of setting up shop in India, citing compliance and visa issues.

Data from aviation analytics firm Cirium shows that direct India-China flights peaked in December 2019, with a total of 539 scheduled flights by carriers such as IndiGo, Air India, China Southern, China Eastern, Air China and Shandong Airlines.

Chinese airlines have scheduled 371 of those flights, more than double the 168 flights by Indian airlines.

Flights were suspended four months later when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Except for some pandemic-related repatriation flights, they have yet to resume, even though India lifted COVID-19 restrictions on international air travel a year later and China lifted all travel restrictions in early 2023.