Tibet sees fast civil aviation development over past decade

LHASA, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Airports in southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region have handled 438,000 flights, 45.6 million passengers, and 368,000 tonnes of cargo and mail in the past decade, authorities said Saturday.

The figures are far more than those in the previous 47 years when Tibet was open to civil flights, Zhang Wei, spokesman for the regional administration of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, told a press conference.

In 2021 alone, the region saw 59,900 takeoffs and landings, 2.79 times the number in 2012, reaching an annual growth rate of 12.1 percent on average.

From 2012 to 2021, the number of passengers handled by the airports in Tibet surged from 2.22 million to 6.03 million.

Civil aviation has accounted for a much higher proportion of the region's entire passenger transportation system, said Zhang.

Flights have now connected Tibet with 68 cities from 28 other provincial-level regions.