'Smooth and easy': India and China resume direct flights as ties improve

Passengers of the first direct flight between India and China in five years touched down on Monday, after Asia's giants lifted a long-term air travel suspension as they cautiously rebuild relations.

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Passengers queue to check-in for a direct flight from Guangzhou to Kolkata at the international airport in Guangzhou on Monday. — AFP

(AFP)

IndiGo flight 6E1703 from Kolkata touched down in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou shortly before 4:00 am (2000 GMT), officially resuming nonstop air links that had been suspended since 2020 due to the pandemic and subsequent geopolitical tensions.

The neighbours and world's two most populous nations remain strategic rivals competing for regional influence, but ties have eased gradually since a deadly Himalayan border clash in 2020.

India's government said the resumption of flights will boost "people-to-people contact" and aid the "gradual normalisation of bilateral exchanges".

Passengers aboard the first flight among them many Indians in search of cross-border business opportunities told AFP in the Guangzhou airport about the convenience of the resumed links.

"It was such a smooth and easy, lovable trip," said Rashika Mintri, a 44-year-old interior designer from Kolkata.

"I could come again and again," she said.