Air India to resume Delhi-Shanghai flights six years after border clash

Route was suspended nearly six years ago following border tension

Air India has announced it is resuming its direct flights to Shanghai from Delhi. Photo: Air India

Air India is restarting its Delhi-Shanghai route from February 1, marking a cautious easing of bilateral tensions between India and China.

Flights between the two countries were suspended during the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and did not resume after a border clash in the remote mountainous region of Ladakh, opposite Tibet.

“The reinstatement of Air India’s services to Shanghai follows recent India-China diplomatic agreements that restored the air links paused in early 2020,” Air India said in a statement.

The airline also said it planned to launch non-stop flights between Mumbai and Shanghai next year, subject to regulatory approval.

The Delhi-Shanghai route will operated by a twin-aisle Boeing 787-8 aircraft, featuring 18 flat beds in Business Class and 238 seats in Economy Class. The flights will take off four times a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

AI352 will depart from Delhi at 12pm local time, arriving in Shanghai at 8.20pm local time. The corresponding flight, AI352, will depart Shanghai at 10pm local time, arriving in Delhi at 3.15am local time.

Air India also plans to launch direct flights between Mumbai and Shanghai, pending regulatory approval. Photo: Zhou Xian / Unsplash

“The resumption of our Delhi-Shanghai service is more than a route launch,” said Air India chief executive Campbell Wilson. “It is a bridge between two great, ancient civilisations and modern economic powerhouses.”

Air India first launched non-stop services to mainland China in October 2000.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited China in August for the first time in seven years. He met President Xi Jinping at the two-day meeting of the Shanghai Co-operation Organisation.

During the meeting, Modi announced the resumption of direct flights between the two countries and said ties in the past year have stabilised after soldiers pulled back from friction points on the border, according to a Bloomberg report.

Xi told Modi that the “right choice” was to be friends. “As long as the two countries remain partners rather than rivals, and see each other as development opportunities rather than threats, China-India relations will flourish and move forward steadily,” Xi was quoted as saying by the Chinese news agency Xinhua.