A plane of Air China lands at Xigaze Airport, southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region, on October 30. The airport, located 3,782 meters above the sea level, is the fifth airport in Tibet. [Xinhua]
An Airbus 319 belonging to Air China, one of the country's biggest airlines, completed a trial flight to Tibet's Peace Airport on Thursday.
This means civilian flights to Tibet's second-largest city of Shigatse is to begin soon.
The trial flight, which took off from the Chengdu Shuangliu International Airport in nearby Sichuan Province, is the last preparatory effort for the opening of the Peace Airport, which is scheduled to open in July this year.
The flight from Chengdu to Shigatse, operated by Air China's southwestern branch, took 2 hours and 15 minutes, according to a statement from the company.
The Peace Airport is the fifth civilian airport to be built in Tibet. Built at an altitude of 3,783 meters, it is also the fifth-highest airport in China.
The airport is designed to handle 230,000 passengers annually, according to the company.
