The world's highest civilian airport has opened at an altitude of 4411 metres on the Tibetan plateau in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, state media say.
The Daocheng Yading airport in Ganzi prefecture's Daocheng county, or Dapba in Tibetan, launched its first commercial flights on Monday, shortening the travel time from the provincial capital of Chengdu from two days by road to about an hour by plane.
Built in two years at a cost of 1.58 billion yuan ($A275.13 million), the single-runway airport is expected to boost the local economy by promoting tourism to the Yading nature reserve and other nearby sights, said Yexe Dawa, the governor of Ganzi, on Tuesday.
Daily flights will initially operate between Daocheng and Chengdu, but the government plans to open routes to major Chinese cities such as Chongqing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the official Xinhua news agency quoted Yexe Dawa as saying at the opening ceremony.
The airport is 77 metres higher than the previous record holder, the 4334-metre Bangda airport in Qamdo in China's Tibet Autonomous Region.
