China’s Tibet opens biggest airport terminal, eyes logistics hub for S.Asia

Lhasa Gonggar Airport in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region opened its newly constructed Terminal 3, which is the biggest in the region, for operations on Saturday, marking a significant milestone in the region's rapid infrastructure development that could significantly boost passenger and cargo transport and help the region become a global logistics hub for South Asia, experts said on Sunday. With the new terminal, the airport is expected to meet an annual handling capacity of 9m passengers and 80,000 metric tons of cargo, handling more than 75% of the passenger flow of all airports in Tibet, according to the airport. The expansion project, which started over three years ago, included the 88,000-square-meter terminal, which is over three times the size of the original terminal and has 21-stand parking apron, a supporting air traffic control facility and new communication and airfreight facilities. The expansion project of Lhasa Gonggar Airport started in December 2017 with an investment of 3.9b yuan ($603m). In recent years, infrastructure construction in Tibet has accelerated with many civil aviation, railways and highway projects, said Liu Zongyi, the secretary-general of the Research Center for China-South Asia Cooperation at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. "This is expected to help build the region into an international logistics hub for South Asia," Liu said on Sunday.<br/>