CHINA will open a new airport in Tibet in early July, bringing the number of civilian airports in the autonomous region to three.
Construction of Nyingchi Airport, 2,949 metres above sea level in Nyingchi prefecture and 400 kilometres from the Tibetan capital Lhasa, was completed in April at a cost of CNY780 million (US$97.5 million), Xinhua News Agency says.
Tibet's two other airports are in Lhasa, about 3,650 metres above sea level, and eastern Qamdo.
"The lower altitude will make Nyingchi an ideal first stop for tourists to gradually adapt themselves to Tibet's highland climate and minimise the effect of thin oxygen," said a spokesman for Air China Southwest, a subsidiary of Air China, quoted by Xinhua.
The new airport could bring an extra 120,000 visitors a year to Tibet, which had 1.22 million tourists in 2004.
It is slated to start operations the same month as the world's highest railway that now links Lhasa with Xining, the capital of western China's Qinghai province.
Beijing says the 2,040-kilometre rail link will promote development and help raise living standards in the region.