Sources with the Tibetan Aviation Bureau said seven flights managed to reach Gongga Airport, near the capital Lhasa, Thursday morning.

They were able to collect more than 2,000 passengers who had been stranded there since flights were suspended.

Around 700 passengers were still waiting for flights at Gongga Airport last night.

The airport had hoped there would be 24 landings and take-offs yesterday -- a record number for the airport -- but a sudden change in the weather during the afternoon forced operations to be stalled again.

Weather conditions are still uncertain and it is not clear whether the remaining passengers will be able to leave today.

The Tibet air route was suspended on Tuesday morning, when an aircraft from China Southwest Airlines found cloud conditions over the Gongga Airport unfit for landing.

Reports said the passenger jet, labeled SZ4445, arrived at Gongga Airport at 9:40am following an hour and a half flight and crew found ground conditions to be invisible even at the altitude of 5,500 meters.

Pilots can usually see the ground clearly at 6,000 meters high.

Considering the dangers of landing at Gongga Airport, which is surrounded by a number of mountains at altitudes higher than 5,000 meters, officials ordered planes to return or fly to Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

Two other flights that had taken off for Tibet returned safely to Chengdu.

Sources with China Southwest Airlines said this was the first large-scale air service suspension to Tibet since the airline first opened business 37 years ago.

Tibetan airport administrators helped prepare food and arranged nearby hotels for stranded passengers following the suspension.

China Southwest Airlines also settled Tibet-bound passengers in airport hotels in Chengdu.

The Tibet air route is one of the roughest routes for air carriers due to its mountainous environment and frequently atrocious weather.

(China Daily August 23, 2002)