XINING, June 26 (Xinhua) -- A new civil airport opened in northwest China's Gobi Desert on Friday, bringing a boon to the oil-rich region.

A China Eastern Airlines Airbus 319, which departed from the provincial capital of Xining, landed at the airport at 10 a.m..

The airport, which is 2,906 meters above sea level, is located in Huatugou Township in the Mongolian-Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Haixi, Qinghai Province.

It is the underdeveloped province's fifth civil airport. It is expected to transport 90,000 passengers and 100 tonnes of goods annually by 2020.

Huatugou is 500 km away its nearest cities. The airport will greatly improve regional connections and the economy, according to Nuo Weixing, head of the prefecture government.

Huatugou has abundant natural reserves including oil, gas and sylvite. It has prospective oil reserves of 1.1 billion tonnes.