Nagqu-Dagring Airport

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The Nagqu-Dagring airport ( Chinese  那曲达仁机场 , Pinyin Nǎqū Daren Jīchǎng , English Nagqu Dagring Airport ) is a construction is still at the airport in the People's Republic of China . It is being built near Dagring , a suburb not far from Nagqu , the capital of the eponymous and largest administrative district in the Tibet Autonomous Region . At an altitude of 4,436 meters, it will be the highest airport in the world. Construction work began in 2015 and the opening is scheduled for 2019 [obsolete] .

For the time being, daily domestic flights to and from Lhasa , Beijing , Shanghai and other Chinese metropolises, as well as direct flight connections to South Asian countries, are planned. This will give the last of the six districts (prefectures) in Tibet its own airport. The previous record holder, Dabba-Yardêng Airport , which opened in 2013 at an altitude of 4,411 meters , is also located in Tibet.

Nagqu District is located around 300 kilometers north of Lhasa. The capital Nagqu is an important traffic junction and the most important trading center of northern Tibet. This is where the China-Nepal Highway intersects the Sichuan-Tibet Highway and the Qinghai-Tibet Railway and the Sichuan-Tibet Railway intersect . Furthermore, the Shabden Monastery is located in Nagqu , the largest and most influential monastery of the Gelug School in northern Tibet, which is visited annually by many pilgrims from all over the world.

Challenges

Construction was originally supposed to start in 2011. In an effort to ensure flight safety, the work was stopped several times, as no technical standards for airports on high plateaus existed at international level . The construction of airfields at this altitude takes place under extreme conditions and places high demands on people and materials. If there is no acclimatization , symptoms of altitude sickness can occur from 2500 meters above sea ​​level . Therefore, a large part of the construction work is done by Tibetans who genetically have a higher respiratory rate and less hemoglobin than the majority of other people. Due to the very high location and the associated alpine climate , the temperatures in Nagqu reach up to −22 degrees in the very cold and dry winters and no more than +9 degrees in the short, cool summers.

Passengers are already at risk of altitude sickness if, for example, they fly from Chengdu, which is only 500 meters above sea level, to one of the highest airports in Tibet in just one hour. Therefore, the airports should have special medical stations with pressure compensation, medical staff and sufficient oxygen equipment. Furthermore need commercial aircraft at this altitude due to low air density, among others, a longer runway of at least 5,000 meters and a very high true airspeed to the risk of a stall to minimize. The required significantly higher landing speed ensures longer braking distances when landing. Another aggravating factor during take-off, in addition to the higher speed required to take off, is the reduced engine power due to the thin air, so that a very long acceleration is required.

Since some Tibetan airports do not have an instrument landing system due to their location and visual approaches are only possible on less than 100 days a year, the airports are equipped with GPS landing systems based on differential GPS . All aircraft approaching must also have appropriate systems. The airports are mainly served by Tibet Airlines , whose pilots are mainly Tibetans because of the differences in altitude. There must always be at least two pilots in the cockpit during flights. Of the world's 42 ultra-high airports, 15 are in China (as of 2015).

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Oliver Fülling: Tibet. Dumont, 2017, p. 289.
  2. ^ Tibet to be location of highest airport in the world. The Guardian, January 12, 2010 , accessed January 25, 2018
  3. ↑ Oliver Fülling: Tibet. Dumont, 2017, p. 290.
  4. ↑ China stops building extremely high-altitude airports , China Internet Information Center dated April 24, 2015 , accessed January 25, 2018
  5. ↑ Tibetans adjusted their genome to Höhenluft in record time , Der Spiegel from July 2, 2010 , accessed on January 25, 2018
  6. ↑ China stops construction of high-altitude airports , AeroTelegraph from May 2, 2015 , accessed on January 25, 2018
  7. ↑ Nyingchi Airport (VisitChina) ( Memento of the original from May 13, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed January 25, 2018  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.visitourchina.com
  8. ↑ The highest civil airport in the world , FAZ from January 12, 2010 , accessed on January 25, 2018