Cairns airport: Jetstar flights to Newcastle begin, Air New Zealand flights
An influx of passengers is expected at Cairns Airport over the school holidays as new flights are also added to the schedule. FIND OUT WHAT’S ON OFFER
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AN influx of passengers is expected at Cairns Airport over the school holidays as new flights are also added to the schedule.
From Saturday Jetstar will operate direct flights to Newcastle with an A320 aircraft three days per week on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. It is expected to carry up to 4000 passengers per month.
Cairns Airport CEO Richard Barker said there had already been a lot of demand in the direct flights.
“What makes it easy is people like wherever possible to fly from point to point,” he said.
“It makes it so much easier than having to stop somewhere.”
Mr Barker said since Ironman he had seen large numbers coming through arrivals and departures
“Just last week we had 85,000 passengers come through, that is higher than we had in 2019.
“It is really playing out with the vibrancy of the town.
“That’s 420 odd flights, coming in and out in the course of a week.”
This is expected to keep going over school holidays.
On that same week in 2019, 72,495 came through the airport.
“We are expecting similar numbers travelling through about 80,000 passengers arriving and departing each week,” he said.
“This year actually helps our tourism operators because school holidays in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria are all spaced out.”
Mr Barker said the popular destinations were the major cities.
“The base of our visitation is capital cities, Brisbane is really really important to us and a lot of people coming from Brisbane are also transferring from other destinations and direct flights from Sydney and Melbourne,” he said.
“So they would account for over 70 per cent of passengers.”
Mr Barker said more international flights were expected to start.
Increased flights between Cairns and Singapore in time for peak European travel
“Next week we have the first direct flights coming in from New Zealand, coming in on July 5,” he said.
“That flight is completely full and the subsequent flights being three flights a week really strong load factors.”
Mr Barker said while international tourism would take a while to get back, it started off promising.
“Not only are we getting domestic tourists, we are also getting international tourists,” he said.
“Five flights a week now coming from Singapore. Air New Zealand is starting back and then late in July, we have flights coming back from Japan.
Tourism Tropical North Queensland CEO said the June break had started strongly.
“Accommodation bookings are very strong, although there is still some availability on the Atherton Tablelands, Mission Beach and in the city,” he said.
“The high end of the market and camping and caravan sites are the first places to book out, but there are some mid-range rooms still available.”
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