Lhasa, Mar 6 (IANS): The second-largest airport terminal in Tibet started operation on Monday, officials said.

The new terminal, the sixth to open in Tibet, is located at Nyingchi Mainling Airport. It covers an area of 10,300 square metres and will be able to handle 750,000 passengers and 3,000 tonnes of cargo throughput annually by 2020, Xinhua news agency reported.

The Nyingchi airport will open new air routes to Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province and resume routes to Beijing.

There will also be an increase in more round trip flights to Lhasa, Guangzhou, Kunming, Chongqing and Shenzhen after the new terminal comes into service, said Liu Wei, deputy director of Civil Aviation Administration of China in Tibet.

The airport has seen year-on-year increases in passenger flow since it was put into service in 2006.

Passenger volume hit 390,000 in 2016, bringing the total passenger number to 2 million in past years, Liu said, adding that the new terminal will effectively alleviate pressure brought by the growing number of passengers.

Nyingchi is located in southeast Tibet at an average elevation of 2,950 metres above sea level.