China Southern Airlines will resume direct flights between Guangzhou and New Delhi from September 21, restoring a route that has been suspended for six years, according to Global Times. The airline announced the decision on Saturday ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to India for the 18th BRICS Summit, marking his first visit to India since the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes. The carrier's announcement coincides with Xi's visit to India on Saturday to attend the BRICS summit and hold talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on further improving bilateral relations. The airline will operate more than 100 weekly flights across eight round-trip routes in South Asia, strengthening connectivity between China and the region. This resumption is part of a broader restoration of direct air links between the two countries after services were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent tensions following the Doklam and Galwan standoffs.
Several airlines have already restored services between India and China in 2026, demonstrating the broader recovery in air connectivity. Air India resumed flights between New Delhi and China in February, while Air China restarted its Beijing-New Delhi service in April. China Eastern also brought back flights between Kunming and Kolkata on April 18. IndiGo has expanded its China operations as well, launching daily nonstop flights between Kolkata and Shanghai on March 30 and reinstating services to Guangzhou and Delhi. The announcement followed the Ministry of External Affairs' (MEA) confirmation of the resumption of direct flights between India and China, with direct flights having been suspended amid the COVID-19 pandemic and tensions following the Doklam and Galwan standoffs.
The flight route restoration comes ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping's arrival in New Delhi for the 18th BRICS Summit, being held on September 12-13, marking his first visit to India since the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes. Xi left Beijing on Saturday for the BRICS Summit at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with Xi expected to hold a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi at 5:45 pm today. Xi's entourage includes Cai Qi, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and director of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, and Wang Yi, Chinese foreign minister and a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee. According to Xinhua, Xi is expected to advance proposals on Global South cooperation at the BRICS summit, much as he did during the SCO Summit in Bishkek. The flight services between India and China were suspended following the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and were not restored amid the over four-year military standoff between the two countries in eastern Ladakh, which ended in October last year.
The restoration of flight routes is being viewed as another practical step towards rebuilding people-to-people and economic links between the two Asian powers. According to NDTV Profit, this development represents a significant milestone in the normalization of India-China relations, with the air connectivity restoration serving as a tangible indicator of improved diplomatic engagement between New Delhi and Beijing. BRICS has emerged as a key platform for coordinating economic policy among major emerging economies, serving as the principal forum where these nations shape a common position on global governance and advance the interests of the Global South within multilateral institutions. The resumption of flights is part of the gradual normalisation of India-China relations following two meetings between Modi and Xi in 2024 and 2025, including meetings on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, in October 2024, and another meeting during the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Tianjin in 2025.
