A flight route between Tibet's Qamdo Prefecture and Chongqing Municipality in southwest China was launched by the end of March, aimed to stimulate local economy.
Tibet Airlines will operate at least three round-trip flights a week using Airbus 319 from Bangda Airport in Qamdo. Neighboring Sichuan Province, Qamdo is a trade hub in east Tibet. Bangda Airport went into operation in 1994. It has two routes in service, one to Lhasa, capital of Tibet Autonomous Region, and another to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan. Some 100,000 passengers travel through the airport annually. The airport, which is 4,334 meters above sea level, is the second highest-altitude civilian airport in the world after Daocheng Yading Airport in Sichuan.
The opening of the route will promote tourism and improve communication between Qamdo and the outside world.