Comac’s regional aircraft ARJ21 has conducted a test flight at the world’s highest civilian airport Daocheng Yading (4411 meters above the sea level), located in Sichuan province, southwest China.

The airports built in high altitudes tend to have thinner air, difficult terrain, and frequent weather changes – that all rises the requirements for aircraft’s capabilities.

Executing both, take-off and landing tests, fully completing a one-day sortie, ARJ21’s performance increases the limits for the maximum altitude passenger jet can operate in and opens possibilities for plateau routes in the future. After two weeks of flight tests, the ARJ21 returned to its base in Shanghai on July 30.

This is the first high-altitude flight testing in 3 years as the last one was held in 2017 at Huatugou airport and the previous one only in 2013 at Golmund airport in West China.