New Chinese carrier Tibet Airlines inaugurated services this week using the first of three Airbus A319s that it has on order. The start-up’s first flight took place on the morning of July 26 between Lhasa and Gunsa Airport in the town of Shiquanhe in Ngari Prefecture, home to the highest commercial airport in the world.
The company will initially offer four flights per week from Lhasa to Chongqing and a daily service to Chengdu, with three rotations continuing on from Lhasa to Shiquanhe, also known in English as Ali. The start-up expects to take advantage of a significant increase in demand for flights to the southwestern Tibet Autonomous Region.
The carrier is majority controlled by the State-owned Tibet Investment Company with two Lhasa-based investment businesses holding minority stakes. The airline will operate a full codeshare with Air China on its initial routes.
The demand for flights from Chengdu and Chongqing to Lhasa is growing significantly. An estimated 766,000 O&D passengers flew between Lhasa, the administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region, and Chengdu in the past year, up 12.2 per cent on the previous 12 months, while 288,000 flew between Lhasa and Chongqing, a 31.4 per cent rise.
Tibet Airlines’ two remaining A319s are due for delivery in the coming months at which time additional new routes will be added – Beijing and Shanghai are both likely options. In the long-term, the carrier is expected to introduce international flights and potentially introduce widebodied equipment to fly long-haul routes.
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