China Opens Its Westernmost Airport on Friday

Tashikuergan Hongqilafu airport, China’s westernmost airport opens on Friday

According to the Xinjiang branch of China Southern Airlines, Tashikuergan Hongqilafu airport (HQL), China’s westernmost airport and Xinjiang’s first high-plate airport, will enter commercial operation on Friday, December 23rd.

CZ 5193/4 will be the airport's first commercial flight number. It will depart Urumqi at 08:35, and arrive at Tashikuergan Hongqilafu Airport by 10:55. After a three-hour stop, the return flight will depart at 14:00, and arrive back at Urumqi around 16:20.

Tashikuergan County, a border county, is located next to Tajikistan Afghanistan, and Pakistan. It is also an autonomous area for Tajiks. On the border of Tashikuergan County, Pakistan and K2 is the well-known summit K2. Tashikuergan, which means "stone city" Uygur language, is named after the stone castle that once stood in its north.

It has approximately 43,000 residents and is multi-ethnic. The name of the airport, "Hongqilafu," is Persian for "deadly Valley" and it's the name of the border crossing between China and Pakistan.

Tashikuergan County is located in the Kashgar region of Xinjiang. Tashikuergan County is approximately 290km from the City of Kashgar, and Urumqi is approximately 1750km.

According to reports, China Southern Airlines will fly its Airbus A319 on Friday's maiden commercial flight. It can accommodate more than 200 passengers for a round trip from Tashikuergan County to Urumqi. This could be sufficient to meet local travelers' travel needs. Tashikuergan County passengers can now transfer via Urumqi from Beijing, Shanghai Guangzhou, Chongqing, and other major Chinese cities after the route is opened.

Prior to the construction of the airport, local passengers who wanted to travel from Urumqi to Kashgar had to take a bus to Kashgar (5 hours), then fly to Urumqi or take a train to Urumqi (the flight takes two hours, the train takes more than 17 hours), or go directly from Zhaosu (around 22 hours). They will now only need to fly direct for two and a quarter hours.

Tashikuergan Hongqilafu airport is designed to handle an annual passenger throughput capacity of 160,000, a cargo throughput capability of 400 tonnes, and a take-off/landing capacity of 1,905 flights up to 2025. The airport's construction cost was approximately 1.63 billion Yuan or 234 million US Dollars.

Tashikuergan Hongqilafu Airport is the 25th civil airport to be in operation in Xinjiang. This will allow Xinjiang to maintain its lead in terms number of airports in China. The Chinese government plans that Xinjiang will have 33 civilian airports by 2025.

Below is a graph showing 25 civil airports in Xinjiang. The Tashikuergan Hongqilafu Airport is the newest.

Xinjiang's highest plateau airport

Tashikuergan Hongqilafu airport is located at 3,258.4 m / 10690 ft above sea level. It is the first high plateau airfield in Xinjiang.

The Civil Aviation Administration of China regulation states that airports higher than 1,524m (5,000ft) are classified as plateau airports. Airports higher than 2,438m (8,000ft) qualify as high-plateau. CAAC has additional regulations for these airports, including pilot qualification and operational verification.

CAAC has additional requirements to verify high plateau airports. The verification flights by China Southern Airlines were completed at the airport on May 19, 2022. The two-day flight test verified the traditional and performance-based navigation flight procedures, minimum operating standard, operation support, airport runway, and navigation equipment, as well as other subjects.

 

Source: simplyflying.com