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Cairns positioning itself as new gateway to Asia

The new direct flights from China to Cairns are expected to inject $35m into the Queensland economy.   

China Eastern Airlines will commence direct flights from Shanghai to Cairns, three times a week from October 31st, The Cairns Post reports.

Queensland Treasurer Tim Nicholls welcomed the news saying the flights would bring more than 700 Chinese visitors to Cairns each week.

“The number of Chinese visitors to Queensland increased by 16 per cent in the 12 months to March this year, injecting $403 million into the Queensland economy,” he said.

“Tourism is one of the four pillars of the Queensland economy and aviation access is vital to helping us achieve our target of doubling overnight visitor expenditure to $30 billion by 2020.”

Tourism Minister Jann Stuckey said the deal was struck thanks to the Newman government’s $8 million Attracting Aviation Investment Fund.

“Today’s announcement is great news, not only for our north Queensland tourism operators who did it tough after cyclone Yasi, but also for the whole state,” she said.

By Alex Harmon  ·  July 20th, 2012 at 1:29 pm

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Comments


  1. Scotty
    23 Jul 12
    10:15 am

    2. This is some positive news (yah, boo, sucks to YOU, news story on us being rude and over-priced!).

    Cairns was positioning itself to become the second largest international gateway after Sydney back in the late 80`s, before a series of problems, beginning with the national pilots` strike and the election of the Goss Government, to name a couple, cruelled Cairns’ pitch. Since those pre-strike days, Cairns has struggled to hold onto the most lucrative routes.

    The Newman Government has been accused of being Brisbados-centric but I am very pleased to see news like this. There are more such approaches being made to other airlines now and ,at the same time,many local initiatives have begun that will improve the tourism experience in the Cairns area.

    Things are looking up, with business people I speak with feeling a bit bouncier than 6 months ago but it will take some time to filter through the entire local economy.

  2. Ralph Jackson
    25 Jul 12
    3:52 pm

    3. Good news but Cairns has a big potential advantage over our southern cities for direct flights from Europe – taking 16 hours using B777s and A340s – and soon to come B787s and A350s. The Cairngaroo Route would be a revolution for Europe travellers, who regard Australia as 24 hours away.
    Finnair have long range A350s on order for 2015 and ran a competition for ideas of where to fly them to. Helsinki is the ‘closest’ EU airport to Cairns and only 550km further than LAX – MEL.
    Cairns and Helsinki offer flights all over Australia and Europe respectively – such a route could become a popular new way to fly between Europe and Australia with Reef and Scandi holiday options. Great for those jaded by SE Asia connections.
    Why not Qantas/Jetstar with their new B787s doing Cairns to Helsinki and linking with their One World mates Finnair – instead of over-flying Europe daftly to London, standing in the Heathrow queues for 3 hours and flying backwards to the Continent on BA? Qantas might start winning back the Europe market.
    Come on Cairns, have those airlines open up the Cairngaroo Route!

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