Asia News Wrap: China Eastern resumes India flights, and more

Here are a few stories from around Asia you may have missed this week.

China Eastern resumes India flights after 5-year break

China Eastern Airlines has resumed flights between China and India after a five-year break. Flight MU563 took off from Shanghai Pudong International Airport at 1:02 p.m. on Sunday, carrying 248 passengers to Delhi, India. The flight marked the restart of the China-India route following a five-year hiatus. 

China Eastern is the first Chinese carrier to resume passenger flights between China and India in 2025. The outbound flight's load factor exceeded 95 percent. The resumed Shanghai Pudong-Delhi route is operated with an Airbus A330 wide-body aircraft and will fly three times a week.

More than 200 killed as two typhoons hit Philippines

The Philippines has been hit by a second typhoon in a week, killing at least 27 people and leaving two others missing. Fung-wong was the second major typhoon to strike the country in just days, following Typhoon Kalmaegi last week, which tore through the central islands and caused over 200 deaths. The death toll from the two recent powerful typhoons that swept across the Philippines has risen to 259, with millions displaced, authorities said on Wednesday. 

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council reported that Fung-wong made landfall on Sunday as a super typhoon, then weakened significantly as it crossed north-central Luzon. Fung-wong is the 21st tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines this year, surpassing the country's average of 20 storms.

Over 500,000 take South Korea's gruelling university entrance exam 

More than half a million students in South Korea took the country's challenging university entrance exam, known as Suneung (College Scholastic Ability Test), on Thursday, with police deployed to ensure they arrived at test centers on time and flights halted for 30 minutes. This year, 554,174 candidates registered for the exam at 1,310 centers across the country, the highest number in seven years. Most of the test-takers were born in 2007, a year marked by a baby boom driven by cultural beliefs about the auspicious timing of childbirth. 

Over 10,000 police officers and 2000 patrol cars were mobilized nationwide to manage traffic and escort students who might otherwise arrive late. During the English listening section, for 35 minutes, aircraft at all airports, including Incheon International Airport, were prohibited from landing or taking off, drones were grounded, and construction was paused to ensure that every test-taker could hear the audio clearly. Depending on their subject choices, students answered roughly 200 questions across Korean, mathematics, English, social or natural sciences, an additional foreign language, and Hanja (Chinese characters used in the Korean language).

Anti-pollution measures tightened in Delhi as air quality drops

India implemented stricter anti-pollution measures in its capital, New Delhi, and neighboring areas on Tuesday as air quality dropped to "severe" levels, the government reported. Delhi's air quality index surpassed 400 at several monitoring stations on Tuesday morning, entering the "severe" category, compared to "good" readings below 50, according to Central Pollution Control Board data. 

The Commission for Air Quality Management announced that stage three of the Graded Response Action Plan was put into effect on Tuesday. Under stage three, non-essential construction is prohibited, and restrictions on industrial activities that use polluting fuels are enforced. During winter, Delhi and surrounding districts are often shrouded in smog, as cold, dense air traps emissions from vehicles, construction sites, and crop burning, pushing pollution levels to some of the highest worldwide and exposing the city's 30 million residents to serious respiratory health risks.

(Cover: A China Eastern Airlines plane on the airport tarmac. /CGTN)