THE fourth civil airport in Tibet, Elikunsha Airport, located on the second highest altitude among all airports in the world and entailing an investment of more than CNY1.6 billion (US$234.3 million), will become operational by July, Xinhua reported.

Another airport in Tibet, Shigatse Airport, is undergoing expansion, which is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

With completion of the construction of Elikunsha Airport and of the expansion of the Shigatse Airport, there will be five airports in Tibet that are in operation, according to Xu Bo, Director of Tibet Branch of Civil Aviation Administration of China.

Tibet is also planning to spend CNY1.8 billion building a new airport in Nagqu during China's 12th five-year plan period (from 2011 to 2015). The Nagqu Airport is preliminarily planned to build at an altitude of 4,436 metres, which will make it the highest airport in the world.