Indian Civil Aviation Minister Ram Mohan Naidu discussed the early resumption of direct flights between India and China during a meeting with an official Chinese delegation in New Delhi on Thursday.
The Chinese delegation was headed by Song Zhiyong, the administrator of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
"I had courtesy meeting with Chinese delegation led by Mr. Song Zhiyong to exchange views regarding further strengthening civil aviation cooperation between the two countries, especially promoting early resumption of scheduled passenger flights between us," Naidu posted on social media platform X.
No further details shared on the meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Ministerial Conference on Civil Aviation.
Notably, direct flights between the two Asian economic giants have remained suspended for over four years since the onset of Covid-19 pandemic. The non-resumption of scheduled flight operations comes amid strained diplomatic ties caused by the military faceoff that erupted in eastern Ladakh in June 2020.
Cargo flights, however, continue to operate between both countries.
China, whose travel industry is yet to recover from the pandemic's impact, has been pressing upon India to resume direct passenger flights, Reuters reported in June.
Connectivity between the two countries peaked in December 2019, when a total of 539 scheduled flights were operated, as per the data available with aviation analytics firm Cirium. The bulk of these flights, 371, were operated by Chinese carriers and 168 were operated by their Indian counterparts, it showed.
IndiGo and Air India were the Indian carriers that operated flights to China, whereas the Chinese carriers that operated flights to India included China Southern, China Eastern and Air China.
In the absence of direct flights, travellers between the two countries are required to take a connecting flight from hubs like Hong Kong, Dubai or Singapore. This results in a significant increase in the travel cost and time.
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