UM AEROPORTO NAS ALTURAS

[RICARDO HUGO URUGUAY]

SHENZHEN airport will open a route to Linzhi starting Monday, its second air route to Tibet.

Flight TV9831/2 will be operated on a daily basis by Tibet Airlines. It departs from Linzhi at 10 a.m. and arrives in Shenzhen at 2:40 p.m. with a stopover at Chengdu. The flight leaves Shenzhen at 3:40 p.m. and arrives in Chengdu at 6:05 p.m. It leaves Chengdu at 6:45 a.m. the next day and arrives in Linzhi at 8:30 a.m., Shenzhen airport said Thursday.

The Milin Airport, which is 2,949 meters in altitude, is a high-plateau airport, where planes can only land and take off during morning hours as the weather conditions are unpredictable. Passengers need to spend the night in other cities like Chengdu before heading to the airport in the morning. The A319-115 plane was also specially refitted to meet the plateau environment.

According to CAAC standards, airports which are above 2,438 meters or 8,000 feet in altitude are regarded as high-plateau airports.

The air route is the first from a Pearl River Delta city to Linzhi in which passengers don’t need to transfer to another plane.

As the altitude of Linzhi is rather low compared with other places in Tibet, it will be easier for passengers to adapt to altitude stress. The route is expected to stimulate tourism to Tibet as many passengers will be able to choose to enter through Linzhi and depart from Lhasa airport.