Why planes don't fly over Tibet

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

If you look at the flight map of passenger aircraft for a long time, you will notice that liners almost never fly through some parts of the globe. There are not so many such places on the globe. One of them is Tibet, a mountainous region in Central Asia, which today is considered the territory of the People's Republic of China.

There are several reasons for the almost complete absence of aircraft over Tibet, as expected.

Reason one: difficult political status

Tibet, as usual, has an ancient, interesting and naturally complex history. The fact is that this region has had a rather loose status since the Cold War of the USSR and the United States. Until 1912, Tibet was part of the Chinese Qing Empire.

When it collapsed, a new theocratic feudal state was formed in Tibet, the elite of which appealed to the fact that the Tibetan Empire once existed on the Tibetan Plateau, which existed from the 7th to the 12th centuries.

All this time, China considered Tibet its territory, but it was not up to the outskirts, since from 1927 to 1950 there was a civil war in the country between the nationalist bourgeois Kuomintang and the communists. Having won the war, the latter decided to deal, among other things, with the "Tibetan issue", since Tibet, in fact, was under the protectorate of yesterday's colonizers of the Celestial Empire: England, France and the United States.

As a result of hostilities in October 1951, Tibet was returned to China. In response to this, Western democracies condemned the actions of the PRC, imposed sanctions, etc. The Tibetan government fled to India, where it remains to this day. Officially, all countries of the world, even the United States, today recognize Tibet as part of China.

However, the discussion about the annexation is rekindled from time to time with renewed vigor, which leaves its mark on the development of the local infrastructure and economy. Although as an agricultural region, Tibet is flourishing under the rule of China, as evidenced by regional GDP data showing stable growth.

Reason two: natural conditions

For wonderful views, Tibet has to pay with not the most simple and hospitable natural conditions. The mountainous region is not favorable for airplane flights, primarily due to the fact that there are so many zones of constant turbulence. It is also important that due to the harsh conditions and mountainous terrain in Tibet, it is extremely difficult to find places for an emergency landing.

Reason three: infrastructure issue

Tibet has a rich history, beautiful nature, and it is also a wonderful agricultural region. That's just this, in fact, that's all. Therefore, a developed airport infrastructure never appeared here.

More importantly, there are very few radar towers in Tibet, making it very difficult for aircraft to fly in this already difficult region. The lack of a developed infrastructure is associated with all the reasons described above.

Reason four: routes

Perhaps the most important reason is money. Or rather, the impossibility of earning them on flights to Tibet.

Firstly, there are no suitable airports for organizing a transshipment point for passenger liners.

Secondly, few people go to Tibet, especially from abroad.

As a result, it turns out that it is unprofitable to build flight routes of liners through this region. In the same Indochina, Europeans fly through Arabia and India. If you try to build a route through the highlands, you get a detour: a waste of fuel, and most importantly, time.