Nyingchi Airport in China's Tibet Autonomous Region will begin service in early July, reports Air China Southwest Branch Company.

Nyingchi Airport, built at a cost of 780 million yuan (US$96.18 million), is the third civilian airport in Tibet. The other two are in Lhasa and Qamdo.

With a 3,000-meter-long runway, the new airport, situated inside Nyingchi Prefecture and 400 kilometers from Tibet's regional capital Lhasa, was completed and passed an assessment on April 28.

With a designed annual passenger flow of 120,000, Nyingchi Airport began construction in October 2004. The airport is located at 2,949 meters above sea level, lower than the other two civil airports.

"The lower altitude will make Nyingchi an ideal first stop for tourists to gradually adapt themselves to Tibet's highland climate and minimize the effect of thin oxygen," said a spokesman for the branch company.

The company will use a Boeing-757 to fly to Nyingchi Airport and plan to open a regular air route from Chengdu to Nyingchi Airport.

Nyingchi Prefecture, covering 117,000 square kilometers and bordering India and Myanmar, is known for its humid and mild climate, beautiful landscape and rich natural resources.

About 120 kilometers from the Nyingchi Airport is Yarlung Zangbo River Grand Canyon, the world's largest canyon that is often referred to as the last secret land.

Air China Southwest Branch Company, which manages the Nyingchi Airport, is based in Chengdu, the capital of neighboring Sichuan Province.

Its parent company, Air China, China's biggest air carrier, on Wednesday announced a plan to go public on the Chinese mainland later this year, hoping to raise 8 billion yuan (1 billion U.S. dollars) through issuing 2.7 billion Chinese currency-denominated shares.

Zheng Bao'an, secretary of the board of Air China, says his company has submitted an application to the China Securities Regulatory Commission for approval of the listing.

(Xinhua News Agency June 14, 2006)