Tibet Airlines eyes Kathmandu route

LHASA -- A one-year-old airline based in China's Tibet autonomous region is expanding rapidly and eyeing Kathmandu, capital city of Nepal, as its first transnational destination, company officials said.

Tibet Airlines on Thursday celebrated its first founding anniversary in Lhasa. The airline, partly controlled by the regional government and the country's flagship carrier, Air China Group, transported 397,000 passengers in the past 12 months, said Cheng Hui, executive director of the board of Tibet Airlines.

The airline now operates a fleet of three, serving 16 daily flights to airports in Tibet autonomous region and four Chinese cities outside the region - Chengdu, Chongqing, Xining and Lanzhou, Cheng said.

The airline plans to add three aircraft to its fleet every year and open routes to major Chinese cities outside of Tibet as well as an international route to Kathmandu in the next three years, he said, adding that the company's ambitious goal is to bridge China's inland with South Asia in the future.