Tibet Airlines launches flights
Contributors are not employed, compensated or governed by TD, opinions and statements are from the contributor directly
Tibet Airlines launched its first commercial flight operations this week. The carrier, which is party-owned by Air China, will be the first airline to be based in Tibet and will operate domestic and regional flights from Lhasa’s Gonggar Airport.
The airline’s maiden flight took off on Tuesday morning from Lhasa, travelling to Ali Kunsha airport in western Tibet’s Ngari prefecture. Xinhua reported the new airline’s Chairman, Xu Bo as saying that in addition to the Lhasa-Ngari route, the airline will provide flight services to all airports in Tibet, as well as other Chinese cities such as Chengdu and Chongqing. In the long-term, Tibetan Airlines also plans to connect to destinations in Southeast Asia, Xu added. India has also been touted as a potential market.
Tibetan Airlines was established in June 2010 and received its first aircraft, a 128-seat, two-class Airbus A319, on 1 July 2011. The fleet will expand to seven aircraft in future, with the addition of four more A319s and two Boeing 757-200s, and within five years it is expected to operate 20 aircraft.
Due to the challenges of operating from Tibet’s high altitude airports (including Ali Kunsha, which at 4,300 metres above sea level is the world’s highest airport), the Tibet Airlines’ aircraft will come equipped with advanced navigation technology, allowing pilots to fly along a predefined route using on-board navigation systems and GPS.
The launch of services this week was marked by a ceremony at Lhasa airport.
Comments are closed.