Access exclusive research, insights and surveys
Access exclusive research, insights, and surveys
As of December 2019, India and China were connected via 539 direct passenger flights. Now there are none.
IndiGo and Air India had operated flights to China, while Air China, China Southern Airlines and China Eastern Airlines had connected Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou with Indian cities.
Both countries suspended those flights following the Covid-19 pandemic and the border clashes that followed in June 2020: thousands of troops are still mobilized on both sides.
A recent Reuters report said China is pushing to repair direct air links between the two countries, but India remains cautious due to strained diplomatic relations.
In the absence of direct flights, travellers between India and China will have to stay on connecting flights via third countries, such as Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore. The diversion adds time and cost.
In 2019, a round-trip ticket in economy and elegant class between New Delhi and Beijing cost between $350 and $550 and took about six hours. Currently, the shortest flight time between New Delhi and Beijing is 10. 5 hours, with fares around $1,280. The cheapest flights last around 12 hours and cost $650.
“China’s strict Covid-19 policies, adding the ‘circuit breaker’ rule that suspended flights if passengers tested positive upon arrival, further confused the resumption of direct flights,” said Linus Benjamin Bauer, founder and CEO of Bauer Aviation Advisory. While this rule is considered comfortable, it has not yet led to the resumption of direct flights, Bauer noted.
Visa restrictions are an obstacle.
Nuo Li, a sustainable tourist from Beijing, experienced this first-hand when she applied for an Indian e-visa in March 2024 in London, where she currently lives.
Li first traveled to India in March 2019 on a double-entry e-visa to join her boyfriend’s family in the southern Indian state of Kerala. This year, she did not find any visa categories for Chinese citizens.
“During my appointment at the VFS office in London, the culprits of my application informed me that they might not accept my application and begged me to seek special approval from the India embassy in London,” Li told Skift. He had written to the embassy of India but so far he has not received any reaction.
In response to a question from Skift, a VFS Global spokesperson said: “Chinese nationals applying for an Indian visa apply from their home country in accordance with the rules of the Indian High Commission. “
The spokesperson said that for further clarification, applicants directly contact the Indian High Commission in London.
The Consulate General of India office in Guangzhou states on its online page that e-visas for Chinese citizens are “temporarily suspended. ” “Anyone with a convincing explanation for why to stopover in India can contact the Indian Embassy in Beijing or the Indian Consulates in Shanghai or Guangzhou, as well as the Indian Visa Application Centers in those cities,” he said. warning.
Chinese tourism expert Wolfgang Georg Arlt noted that even before the pandemic, the relationship between India and China was relatively low, with maximum traffic consisting of businessmen, academics or medical tourists.
Arlt, who is also executive director of the Chinese Outbound Tourism Research Institute (COTRI), cited COTRI studies that highlighted that Chinese travelers have a negative belief about India, while Indians feel welcome in China.
Arlt said that while direct flights would be helpful, improving political relations and addressing those negative perceptions would have a more significant effect on travel demand.
Mary Li, CEO and founder of tech startup Atlas, said political tensions, conversion policies and the pandemic have taken a huge toll between the two countries.
Despite this, Li said there is still significant demand for travel: Chinese travelers have made around 24 million searches for flights to India this year, according to Atlas data.
The most popular routes come with Shanghai-Mumbai and Shanghai-Delhi, followed by Chengdu and Guangzhou as other popular departure cities.
Li said many Chinese corporations have suspended operations in India, leading to a decline in travel requests.
With 539 scheduled flights suspended, FCM Travel India has also noticed a decline in travel, said Sunny Sodhi, managing director of FCM Travel India.
“It is not only the lack of direct flights between India and China, but also the complexities of obtaining visas that has an effect on the ability and ease of travel between those two countries,” he said. Sodhi said.
However, Sodhi noted that this has also led to Dubai becoming a popular business hub for Indian travelers and Singapore for China. He added that this also contributed to facilitating visa processes between those countries.
India is booming. Discover here the top important tourist news of the subcontinent every Tuesday and Thursday.
Do you have any confidential information for Skift? Get in touch
Tags: asia monthly, travel, get out of China, coronavirus recovery, covid-19, india, get out of India, Mumbai, Shanghai, tiktok
Photo Credit: There is no direct connectivity between India and China of late.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
Airline news evolves quickly. Don’t miss a thing with our weekly airline newsletter. Landing in your inbox every Saturday.