Xinjiang's first high altitude airport Xinjiang's highest county Tashkurgan Pamir Airport starts construction

Construction of Tashkurgan Pamir Airport begins

　　On April 26, construction of Tashkurgan Pamir Airport started in full swing.

　　Tashkurgan Pamir Airport, the first high plateau airport in Xinjiang, is located 13 km south of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County at an altitude of 3,252 metres and is expected to be operated in May 2022.

Landmarks of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County

　　Tashkurgan Pamir Airport is a key airport construction project for the 13th Five-Year Plan of the State, the Civil Aviation Administration and the autonomous region, with a total investment of 1.63 billion RMB and a construction period of 3 years. The project will have a runway length of 3,800 meters, a width of 4C and a terminal area of 3,000 square meters.

　　According to Xinjiang Airport Group, airports with an altitude of 2438 metres or more are considered high plateau airports. There are currently 15 high plateau airports in use in China and 2 airports under construction (including Tashkurgan Pamir Airport), with Tashkurgan Pamir Airport ranking 14th in terms of altitude.

　　According to Liao Zhengjun, head of the Tashkurgan Pamir Airport Project Construction Command, as the first high plateau airport in Xinjiang, there are certain difficulties in site selection and construction.

　　"Tashkurgan is close to the national border, high altitude, complex terrain, poor clearance conditions and harsh climate, the airport combined with Tibet, Qinghai and other areas of the plateau airport site selection and construction experience, within 30 kilometres around Tashkurgan County, three alternative sites for comparison, analysis, repeated arguments, and finally determined the straight-line distance of 13 kilometres from the county Aktamu as the airport site The airport is located 13 kilometres away from the county town." Liao Zhengjun said, the site location of the long freezing cycle, the effective construction period of only half a year, the required building materials, construction personnel to be transported from 300 kilometres away from Kashgar City to the site, the project volume is huge.

　　It is reported that after the commissioning of Tashkurgan Pamir Airport, routes will be planned from Tashkurgan to Kashgar, Shache, Urumqi, Yining and Aksu, and in the long term, additional routes are planned from Tashkurgan to Xi'an, Beijing and Shenzhen.

　　Source: tianshan.com Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)