After decades of strained relations, China and India are warming up to each other, both diplomatically and economically with bilateral trade growing from less than US$2 billion in 1999 to a projected US$30 billion this year. In an effort to aid bilateral trade further, China Eastern Airlines, one of the biggest airlines of China, has decided to start direct flights from Kolkata to Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan province.

Disclosing this in Kolkata recently, chief minister of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said, "Our business ties with China are expanding and the direct flights are an encouraging development." Mao Siwei, the Consul-General of China in Kolkata who was also present on the occasion, echoed these sentiments.

The non-stop flight will take around three hours from Kolkata to Kunming from where China Eastern Airlines has connecting flights to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other important Chinese cities. The airline now operates three weekly flights from Delhi on the Delhi-Shanghai-Guangzhou route. The route will be Kunming's first direct link to India and Kolkata's first direct flight to China. Kolkata is home to India's largest Chinatown and the direct flight will also help the Chinese people settled there.

The opening of this air route is expected to increase business and tourism between the two countries and boost the growing economies. According to reports, on an average, 300 persons from Kolkata now travel to Chinese cities every week, mostly on business trips. Currently, business travellers and tourists visiting China now have to either catch a China-bound flight from New Delhi or fly to Singapore or Bangkok and board a connecting flight to China.

Sources indicate that the airline will operate three flights between Kolkata and Kunming every week. The flight will arrive in Kolkata on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and take off from Kolkata on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.