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World’s highest civilian airport opens in China
September 16, 2013, 8:08 am

The airport built with an investment of $255 million, is expected to increase connectivity to the Tibetan prefecture [Xinhua]

The airport built with an investment of $255 million, is expected to increase connectivity to the Tibetan prefecture [Xinhua]

The world’s highest civilian airport, at 4,411m above sea level has opened in China.

Daocheng Yading Airport, in the Ganzi Tibetan autonomous prefecture in Sichuan started operating on Monday in southwest China’s Sichuan Province.

159 kilometers from Yading, the airport will offer routes through to the western cities of Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming in the south, Guiyang and Xi’an.

The airport built with an investment of $255 million, is expected to increase connectivity to the Tibetan prefecture.

Around 500,000 passengers are expected to pass through its gates annually.

China’s 12th Five-Year Plan has set a target of building 82 new airports by 2015.

China’s airline industry is also forced to compete with rapidly modernizing and fast growing rail networks.

The China Railway Corporation (CRC) says it intends to raise fixed-asset investment to 660 billion yuan ($106.5 billion) in 2013 in a bid to boost the country’s infrastructure.

CRC also announced that it will be spending more than 50 billion yuan ($8.2 billion) to buy locomotives, bullet trains and cargo carriers.

China has also announced plans to extend it’s high speed rail network from the current 9000 kilometers, which is presently the world’s longest, to16,000 kilometers by 2020.

 

Source: Agencies