Cairns Airport on track to beat international visitor record by middle of 2026
Cairns Airport is on track to deliver its best international visitor numbers in almost two decades, with hopes the award-winning facility can crack its record for overseas tourists by the middle of 2026.
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Cairns Airport is on track to deliver its best international visitor numbers in almost two decades, with hopes the award-winning facility can crack its record for overseas tourists by the middle of 2026.
Airport chief executive Richard Barker, speaking at a business luncheon on Friday, said that by the end of the 2024/25 financial year, the airport will have had 760,000 passengers through its international terminal, its highest amount since 2005/06.
“We should be aiming by the middle of next year to be at our highest level overall ever,” he said.
He also said Cairns Airport had the most growth in international passengers out of any Australian airport in 2024.
Mr Barker said “our secret weapon is our northern location”, and that the growth coincided with the airport’s vision to become a “northern hub” like the Asian cities of Tokyo and Singapore.
Mr Barker said Cairns previously struggled compared to those Asian cities due to its small outbound market, meaning they couldn’t meet passenger numbers to fill large aircraft, but aircraft developments were paving the way for Cairns to achieve “hub” status.
“The joy of these new aircraft, is we can now reach deep into Asia from Cairns with a narrow body aircraft, so we only have to have 180 passengers on each flight rather than 350,” he said.
“So, fundamentally the economics of getting a new service to stack up is so much easier.
“From Cairns you can reach Japan with one of these aircraft, but you can’t reach Japan from Gold Coast or Brisbane, so we really have an opportunity to set ourselves up as a northern hub, and we already see evidence of it working.
“A culmination of our northern location and a new generation of aircraft is really going to set us up for a period of growth that will achieve long term sustainable growth.”
On April 10, Fiji Airways launched a route from Cairns to Nadi, which Mr Barker also said would provide “seamless connectivity” to the United States.
“They (Americans) are the second biggest visitor group here in Cairns, and they have to go through a really complex journey into one of the capital cities lower south and (then) up here,” Mr Barker said.
“It just shows the latent demand to get to see the reef and experience the culture, the rainforest and the tourism product up here.”
Jetstar also launched a direct Cairns to Christchurch route on Wednesday, April 2, which will add 70,000 seats to the market each year.
Mr Barker said the Queensland government’s Attracting Aviation Investment Fund was a big contributor to the airport’s growth.
“It’s a big risk for airlines to start new services,” Mr Barker said.
“So, the support we’ve been able to get from the state government has been instrumental in us putting together some growth.”
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Originally published as Cairns Airport on track to beat international visitor record by middle of 2026
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