Tibet Airlines, which will open next month, will be headquartered at Konggar Airport in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, and will provide domestic cargo and passenger services.
The company will have 20 aircraft within the first five years of operation and the airline fleet will expand in line with demand.
All the planes used will be modified to adapt to the plateau environment, and flights will begin in mid-2011. Most employees will be recruited locally.
Currently, six domestic airlines operate in Tibet with a total of 16 flight routes. The autonomous region received 5.56 million tourists last year, a
year-on-year increase of 30%.
China Trade Information reported that experts said a careful flight strategy should be mapped out first as the region’s tourism is under the influence of seasonal change and cost of operations in Tibet is much higher than places with lower altitudes.