China Southern returns to Delhi after six years, with Guangzhou flights from 21 September

What has changed

China Southern Airlines will resume scheduled passenger flights between Guangzhou and New Delhi on 21 September 2026, six years after it stopped flying the route. The airline confirmed the restart to Press Trust of India on Saturday 12 September, and set out the schedule at a trade briefing in Delhi on 10 September through Group Concorde, its general sales agent in India.

China Southern was the largest Chinese carrier between Delhi and China before 2020. Services between the two countries stopped during the pandemic and were not restored through the four-year military standoff in eastern Ladakh. The announcement lands on the day Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in India for the BRICS summit.

The schedule, and what it costs

The route starts with five flights a week — Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays — flown by a Boeing 737-8 with four business-class and 170 economy seats. From 26 October, the start of the northern winter schedule, the service is planned to go daily.

CZ360 leaves Delhi at 20:20 and reaches Guangzhou at 04:15 the next morning. CZ359 leaves Guangzhou at 15:35 and lands in Delhi at 19:00. All times are local. China Southern has opened the route with promotional fares from ₹22,000 one way and ₹33,000 return, both described as all-inclusive.

The airline's own new-route page lists the same two flight numbers and the same timings, and markets the service as daily rather than five-weekly — consistent with the planned 26 October step-up rather than with the opening three weeks. Check the day of the week you want before you book.

What it means for Indian travellers

This is the second nonstop link between Delhi and Guangzhou rather than the first: IndiGo has flown the route daily with an A320 since 10 November 2025. What changes is that a Chinese carrier is back, with a hub behind it. Guangzhou Baiyun connects onward to more than 141 cities in China, and to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, North America and Europe.

The immediate audience is business travel. Guangzhou hosts the Canton Fair twice a year, and the autumn session runs across October and November — the weeks in which this service goes daily. Group Concorde says China Southern intends to expand further in India, subject to government and regulatory approvals, and to build a cargo business alongside; no second Indian city has been named.

One thing has not changed. Indian passport holders still need a visa for China, and neither the airline nor its agent said anything about entry rules. Nothing in this announcement affects them.

Sources

This report is based on the following published sources. Rules and schedules change — confirm with the issuing authority before you travel.

• China Southern Airlines returns to India after six years with Delhi-Guangzhou flights from September 21 — Travel Trade Journal, 11 September 2026
• China Southern Airlines to resume Guangzhou-Delhi flights after 6 years — Business Standard / Press Trust of India, 12 September 2026
• Explore Delhi — China Southern new route page (CZ360 / CZ359) — China Southern Airlines
• IndiGo to start daily direct flights between Delhi and China’s Guangzhou from November 10 — The Tribune / ANI, 11 October 2025