News
Australia’s Cairns Airport confirms new Asia flights
July 7th 2017
North Queensland’s Cairns Airport has announced the addition of three times weekly China Southern Airlines flights between the airline’s Guangzhou hub and Cairns Airport from December, which will convert a seasonal route into a year-round scheduled service. Read More »
Cairns will be China Southern’s sixth destination to Australia. The SkyTeam member flies to Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth from Guangzhou and Melbourne and Sydney from Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
Cairns Airport CEO, Norris Carter, said this was great news for Cairns to receive during the 2017 China Australia Year of Tourism. “We look forward to rolling out the red carpet for China Southern’s first flight in December,” Carter said.
“These flights from Guangzhou will provide more convenient access to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef from the world’s largest visitor source market. It opens up the ‘Canton Route’ for travellers to connect from Europe through Cairns. It will give our local residents another option for travelling to China that does not involve flying south to head north.
“The service will bring opportunities for our region’s high quality primary produce to be exported to China, tapping into this enormous market through the China Australia Free Trade Agreement.”
Cairns has lobbied for more flights to Asia for years. Only a handful of carriers offer nonstop flights from North Queensland to Asia: five-weekly SilkAir flights to Singapore, five-weekly Jetstar flights to Narita, four-weekly Cathay Pacific Airways to Hong Kong and three a week on Hong Kong Airlines, four-weekly Philippine Airlines flights to Manila, four-weekly Jetstar flights to Denpasar and 13-weekly Air Niugini hops to port Moresby.
“We welcome the Queensland Government’s support through its Connecting with Asia fund. We’ve have been working closely with them for some time, along with Cairns Regional Council, Tourism and Events Queensland, Tourism Tropical North Queensland and Tourism Australia, to attract China Southern to Cairns,” Carter said.
Separately, South Korean budget carrier, Korean Air subsidiary Jin Air, has confirmed it will begin 12 return seasonal B777 services from Seoul to Cairns in December and January.
Carter said Jin Air’s seasonal service last year was “one of the most successful ever to operate into Cairns Airport” with every flight almost at capacity. He added the airport tourism authorities continue to work with Jin Air “to develop an extended seasonal service and eventually a service that can provide South Korean people with year round access”.
