Tibet's Ngari Gunsa Airport to open in July

The Ngari Gunsa Airport in northwest Tibet's Ngari Prefecture is set to open in July following the completion of 95 percent of its construction, according to the Tibet Autonomous Regional Civil Aviation Administration.

An undated photo shows the Ngari Gunsa Airport under construction. (Photo:  Tibet.cn)

The airport began to be built in May of 2007 at a total cost of 1.7 billion yuan(about 249 million U.S. dollars). It is designed to handle 120,000 passengers and 350 tons of cargo and mails per year in 2020, according to Xu Bo, director of the administration.

At an altitude of 4,274 meters, the airport, the fourth of its kind in Tibet, will have a 4,500-m runway and a 51,000-sq-m parking apron. Upon completion, it will be able to accommodate four planes.

Ngari Prefecture, 1,600 km away from Tibet's capital of Lhasa, lies in the northwestern part of Tibet with complicated geological conditions.

Transportation has been a bottleneck to the area's social and economic development, especially the development of the local tourism industry, according to local authorities.