Tata group airline Air India will start operating non-stop flights between Delhi and Shanghai from February 1, marking its return to mainland China after nearly six years. Following the resumption of direct flight connectivity between the two countries in October, Air India is the third airline to announce non-stop services between India and mainland China. IndiGo and Chinese carrier China Eastern have already started operating flights connecting India and the Chinese mainland.ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW VIDEO“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 first launched non-stop services to mainland China in October 2000,” Air India said Monday. The airline also intends to i produce non-stop flights between Mumbai and Shanghai in the coming year, subject to regulatory approvals.Air India will operate four times a week between Delhi and Shanghai using its twin-aisle Boeing 787-8 aircraft, the airline said.IndiGo was the first airline to resume direct services to China with flights connecting Kolkata and Guangzhou from late October. Earlier this month, it launched direct flights between Delhi and Guangzhou, while China Eastern started direct flights between Delhi and Shanghai.Before these services, with the exception of the Chinese special administrative region of Hong Kong, India and China had no direct flights since early 2020, just before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic.Direct flight connectivity between India and China was initially suspended due to the pandemic, which had brought much of the international flight operations to a grinding halt globally. As the India-China bilateral relationship soured following the standoff in Eastern Ladakh in 2020 and remained frigid over the subsequent years, direct flights between the two nations did not resume despite air connectivity returning to pre-pandemic levels globally.Lack of direct flights led to high airfares and long travel times for those flying between India and China, as they had to take connecting flights from hub airports in Southeast Asia. According to industry insiders, airlines—Chinese as well as Indian—had been looking to restart direct flights, as there is high demand for travel between the two countries.Story continues below this adEarly October, the Ministry of External Affairs announced that India and China had agreed to allow direct flights between the two countries from the 2025 winter schedule starting October 26.The evident signs of a thaw in the India-China relationship—notably at a time when New Delhi’s relationship with Washington has hit a few roadblocks—had built the hope that normalisation of air connectivity between India and China was imminent. During Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit to New Delhi in August, the two countries said that they had agreed to resume direct flight connectivity “at the earliest”. They had also agreed on the facilitation of visas to tourists, businesses, media and other visitors in both directions.Resumption of direct flights and normalisation of visa issuances—demands China has been making over the past couple of years—had also come up in Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s discussions with Beijing during his China visit in January. At the time, the two countries had agreed “in principle” to resume direct flights. In the preceding months, the matter featured in talks between foreign and aviation ministers of the two countries.Lack of direct air connectivity between India and mainland China, along with stringent visa restrictions, led to airlines from both countries losing out on potential passenger loads, and airlines operating from other Southeast Asian countries cashing in on the opportunity. Passenger traffic between India and China—currently solely through connecting hubs in South and Southeast Asia—is less than half of what it was in 2019.Story continues below this adAll of it was being catered to by airlines from regions like Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, and Vietnam. To be sure, the Hong Kong airport is not exactly considered a Chinese airport due to Hong Kong’s special autonomous status and a different visa regime than mainland China. It continues to be the leading connecting hub between India and mainland China.The normalisation of air connectivity between India and China would likely be beneficial for airlines from both countries. However, Beijing appears to believe that Chinese carriers stand to gain more, as they held the dominant share of the direct flight market before the pandemic. This perception likely explains why China had been encouraging India to permit the re-establishment of direct air connectivity and normalise visa issuances for Chinese nationals.Prior to the pandemic, specifically in December 2019, there were 539 scheduled direct flights per month between the two nations, offering a cumulative seat capacity of over 1.25 lakh. Of these, Indian carriers—IndiGo and Air India—accounted for 168 flights, or approximately 31 per cent. The remaining nearly 70 per cent of flights were operated by Chinese airlines, including Air China, China Eastern, China Southern, and Shandong Airlines.Despite this historical dominance, aviation industry observers do not necessarily anticipate that Chinese carriers will maintain such a significant share once direct flight connectivity is re-established. A lot has changed within the Indian aviation sector since 2019. Air India, now privatised and well-capitalised, has ambitions for rapid growth, particularly in the international market. Similarly, IndiGo, India’s leading domestic carrier, is now more focused on expanding its international network.