A passenger aircraft on Friday arrived in Taxkorgan Tajik autonomous county, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, marking the inauguration of the region's first high plateau airport.

The airport, located at 3,258 meters above sea level, is China's westernmost transportation airport.

The construction of Taxkorgan Airport began in 2020, with an investment of more than 1.6 billion yuan ($229 million). Equipped with a 3,800-meter runway, the airport is designed to handle an annual throughput of 160,000 passengers and 400 tons of cargo and mail.

"The opening of the airport will make the number of airports reach four in the Kashgar region, forming a closed-loop route," says Liu Hui, a senior official with the Kashgar culture, Radio, television and tourism bureau.

"It will greatly enhance the support of aviation to the tourism industry and strongly promote the development of tourism industry," Li says.

At the airport launch ceremony, the Kashgar winter tourism season also kicked off.

A total of 12 counties and cities in the region will carry out more than 130 events featuring winter tourism, sports, art and intangible cultural heritage performances, as well as lantern festivals will be staged during the season that will last till the end of March, according to Liu.

A total of 72 reading and cultural events will also be staged in local museums and libraries.