Bottles with oxygen are offered for sale to passengers landing at Lhasa Gonggar Airport that is built at an elevation of 3,570 m (11,713 ft), near Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, China November 16, 2015. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
June 9, 2018
BEIJING (Reuters) – The Chinese region of Tibet is planning to build three new airports to promote tourism and economic growth, bringing the total of civil airports in the far west region to eight, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.
Construction of the three new airports, all above the altitude of 3,900 meters, will begin in 2019, according to Xinhua.
Currently, there are nine airlines operating 86 routes out of Tibet, including an international one, Xinhua said.
Tibet’s economy, the smallest among all Chinese provinces and regions, expanded at 10 percent last year to 131 billion yuan ($20.46 billion).
(Reporting by Stella Qiu and Philip Wen; Editing by Michael Perry)
