Stranded Chinese in India are going home via Europe, at almost 10 times pre-pandemic cost

When William Li arrived in India in early January for a three-month business trip, he never expected he would still be stranded there some seven months later – or that his return journey to East China would take almost seven times longer than his outbound flight.

The 38-year-old supply chain manager for a multinational manufacturing company is among the hundreds of Chinese nationals who became stranded in India when international travel ground to a halt in March amid the coronavirus pandemic.

India began the process of restarting commercial passenger services in July by opening up what are referred to as “air transport bubbles” with countries including Canada, Germany and France. No such agreement has yet been made with China, however, leaving the 2,000 or so Chinese citizens who could not secure a seat on flights chartered by the embassy – like Li – with little choice but to go the long way round if they want to go home.

He had also seen that only three of the more than 100 Chinese expatriates at his company had managed to get on one of the first five chartered flights arranged by the embassy in early June, and did not know if he would have any more luck with three further flights set to depart in late August.