(TibetanReview.net, Jun22’24) — India has shot down China’s proposal to resume direct passenger flights between the two countries after a four-year hiatus, insisting that the persisting border standoff be settled first for normalizing overall bilateral ties. It was only the latest effort by China to keep its aggressive border posturing running while seeking to act as if it is business as usual in other areas of bilateral tie.
India-China relations nosedived and have remained tense since the Chinese People’s Liberation Army carried out a night raid on Indian troops in the Galwan Valley of eastern Ladakh in Jun 2020, killing 20 Indian and a belatedly-admitted least four Chinese soldiers. Tens of thousands of troops remain mobilized on each side and the standoff continues.
Since the clash, India has made it difficult for Chinese companies to invest, banned hundreds of popular apps, including TikTok, and severed passenger routes, although direct cargo flights still operate between the Asian giants.
Direct flights would benefit both economies, but the stakes are higher for China, where a recovery in overseas travel after the Covid-19 pandemic is lagging, while India’s aviation sector booms, noted Reuters Jun 20.
Several times over the past year or so, China’s government and airlines have asked India’s civil aviation authorities to re-establish direct air links, the report said, citing two people with direct knowledge of the matter, with one saying China considers this a “big issue”.
“We hope the Indian side will work with China in the same direction for the early resumption of direct flights,” the report quoted China’s Foreign Ministry as saying in a statement last week, adding that resuming flights would be in both countries’ interests.
Direct India-China flights peaked in Dec 2019 with a total of 539 scheduled flights. Chinese carriers scheduled 371 of those flights, more than double the 168 by India’s airlines, the report said.
Flights were halted four months later as the Covid-19 pandemic escalated, but they have not resumed even though India lifted Covid restrictions on international air routes a year later and China lifted all Covid travel measures in early 2023, noted Reuters Jun 21.
“Unless there is peace and tranquillity on the border, the rest of the relationship cannot move forward,” the Jun 20 Reuters report cited a senior Indian official familiar with India-China bilateral developments as saying on Beijing’s desire to resume flights as saying.
Still, Indian airlines are holding discussions with New Delhi, while Chinese carriers are talking to their government about resuming direct routes, the report cited CEO Pieter Elbers of Indigo, India’s largest airline, as saying.