BEIJING - THE world's second highest airport, in China's south-western province of Sichuan, will open next May after a successful trial flight over the weekend, the country's aviation regulator said on Monday.

The airport, in the mainly ethnic Tibetan area of Kangding, is 4,280 metres above sea level, second only to Qamdo airport in Tibet, the General Administration of Civil Aviation of China said on its website.

Qamdo is 4,334 metres above sea level.

On Sunday, an Air China Airbus A319 landed safely at the 960 million yuan ($186 million) airport, which is in a poor area near the scenic Gongga Mountains.

The government hopes the airport will bring in much needed tourist dollars and investment.

It is in an area so remote that Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai, writing more than 1,000 years ago, said it was easier to get to heaven.

Air China will open flights from Sichuan's provincial capital Chengdu to Kangding on May 1, to coincide with the week-long Labour Day holiday, the regulator said in a statement.

Flights from Chengdu will take just over half an hour, it added.

The airport is designed to handle 330,000 passengers a year and can accommodate 120-seat Boeing 737s and Airbus A319s.

China has embarked upon a multi-billion-dollar programme in recent years to revamp old airports and build new ones, especially in the country's remote west as a way of boosting the local economy.

Last year, China opened Tibet's third airport, in Nyingchi, which is nearly 3,000 metres above sea level.

The airport at Tibet's capital, Lhasa, stands at 3,650 metres above sea level. All have extra long runways to give aircraft more time to take off in the thin air. -- REUTERS