The world’s highest civilian airport
opened at an altitude of 4,411 meters on
the Tibetan plateau in the south-western
Chinese province of Sichuan, state media
said on Tuesday.
The Daocheng Yading airport in Ganzi
prefecture’s Daocheng county, or Dapba
in Tibetan, launched its first commercial
flights on Monday, shortening the travel
time from the provincial capital of
Chengdu from two days by road to about
one hour by plane.
Built in two years at a cost of 255 million
dollars, the single-runway airport is
expected to boost the local economy by
promoting tourism to the Yading nature
reserve and other nearby sights, said Yexe
Dawa, the Governor of Ganzi.
Daily flights will initially operate between
Daocheng and Chengdu, but the
government plans to open routes to
major Chinese cities such as Chongqing,
Shanghai and Guangzhou, the official
Xinhua news agency said.
The airport is 77 metres higher than the
previous record holder, the 4,334-metre
Bangda airport in Qamdo in China’s Tibet
Autonomous Region.
Ganzi is a restive area where local
Tibetans protesting to uphold their
political, religious and cultural rights have
clashed with police several times in
recent years.
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