A plane lands on the first high plateau airport of Xinjiang. (Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn)

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.