Tibet opens new airport
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A new passenger airport opened in the Tibet Autonomous Region Saturday, the fifth in the vast remote region.
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Tibet opens new airport |
An Airbus 319 landed at Xigaze Peace Airport at 9:50 am Saturday to mark the formal opening of the facility.
The airport, which is located 3,783 meters above sea level, will supplement the existing Lhasa, Nyingchi, Qamdo and Ngari airports.
Workers started building the 489 million yuan ($74 million) airport in April 2009.
The terminal, about 4,500 square meters, is expected to handle 230,000 passengers and 1,150 tons of cargo each year by 2020, according to Xu Bo, chief of the Civil Aviation Bureau of Tibet Autonomous Region. Flights take 2 hours and 15 minutes from Chengdu to Xigaze and 30 minutes from Lhasa to Xigaze.
"Not many passengers choose to travel to Xigaze due to poor transportation and cold weather," an unidentified worker at the Beijing Youth Travel Service told the Global Times Sunday.
She said Xigaze is located 250 kilometers from Lhasa and it normally takes three to four hours to get there.
"The operation of this airline may help stimulate tourism but I'm not optimistic about that since the weather has great influence on it," she said.
Air China plans to establish an aviation network in Tibet, known as the roof of the world, with Lhasa as the central hub. The network will connect the Tibetan Plateau with the domestic and international airline network.
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