China Eastern Airlines (MU) on Sunday restarted nonstop passenger flights between Shanghai Pudong (PVG) and Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport (DEL) after a five-year suspension. Inaugural flight MU563 left Pudong at 13:02 carrying 248 passengers and landed in Delhi with a load factor above 95 percent. The service will operate three times a week (Wednesday, Saturday, Sunday) on Airbus A330 wide-bodies, with frequency increases under review.
The resumption follows IndiGo’s late-October relaunch of Delhi–Guangzhou and underlines a cautious thaw in China-India aviation, which had been effectively frozen since 2020 amid pandemic restrictions and bilateral tensions. China Eastern says it also plans to relaunch Kunming–Kolkata and add a new Shanghai–Mumbai sector in 2026, signalling confidence in pent-up demand for business, student and VFR (visiting-friends-and-relatives) traffic.
![China Eastern Re-opens Shanghai–Delhi Route, Restoring Direct Air Bridge to India]()
For multinationals the route is strategically important: Shanghai hosts regional HQs for more than 700 Indian companies, while Delhi is a key gateway for Chinese telecom, infrastructure and manufacturing firms operating in India’s northern economic corridor. Direct connectivity cuts journey time by up to four hours versus one-stop options via Bangkok or Singapore, and eliminates transit-visa complications. Mobility managers expect the route to accelerate project-based travel, especially in pharmaceuticals, IT outsourcing and renewable-energy supply chains.
Capacity remains limited—three weekly flights equate to about 1,800 seats in each direction—but analysts at OAG believe yields could stabilise quickly as premium corporate demand returns. Travel buyers should lock in negotiated fares early and monitor the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation for potential slot increases.
The reopening also dovetails with China’s broader visa-policy relaxations: Indian nationals transiting through PVG for onward flights to a third country can now use the 24-hour visa-free zone, while many Indian executives qualify for the new online arrival-card system launching 20 November.
The resumption follows IndiGo’s late-October relaunch of Delhi–Guangzhou and underlines a cautious thaw in China-India aviation, which had been effectively frozen since 2020 amid pandemic restrictions and bilateral tensions. China Eastern says it also plans to relaunch Kunming–Kolkata and add a new Shanghai–Mumbai sector in 2026, signalling confidence in pent-up demand for business, student and VFR (visiting-friends-and-relatives) traffic.
For multinationals the route is strategically important: Shanghai hosts regional HQs for more than 700 Indian companies, while Delhi is a key gateway for Chinese telecom, infrastructure and manufacturing firms operating in India’s northern economic corridor. Direct connectivity cuts journey time by up to four hours versus one-stop options via Bangkok or Singapore, and eliminates transit-visa complications. Mobility managers expect the route to accelerate project-based travel, especially in pharmaceuticals, IT outsourcing and renewable-energy supply chains.
Capacity remains limited—three weekly flights equate to about 1,800 seats in each direction—but analysts at OAG believe yields could stabilise quickly as premium corporate demand returns. Travel buyers should lock in negotiated fares early and monitor the Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation for potential slot increases.
The reopening also dovetails with China’s broader visa-policy relaxations: Indian nationals transiting through PVG for onward flights to a third country can now use the 24-hour visa-free zone, while many Indian executives qualify for the new online arrival-card system launching 20 November.
