Cairns Airport achieved 7% growth in passenger numbers through the international terminal (T1) in December, the same month that two new international routes from mainland China to Cairns were launched.
Cairns Airport Chief Commercial Officer Aviation, Paul McLean, said new direct international flights such as China Southern Airlines from Guangzhou and Hainan Airlines from Shenzhen will contribute to shifting some of the current 80% of international passengers who arrive into and depart from Cairns on domestic services on to dedicated international flights.
“In December we also had a significantly higher percentage of international flights dedicated to Cairns rather than operating onwards to other ports. Historically this has been up to 53% while in December it rose to 91%.”
“Dedicated, direct flights give international visitors better access to Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef and allow them to spend more time here on holiday and less time travelling.”
“This change has impacted our overall passenger numbers, which reduced by 2%, simply because there was a significant reduction in the number of transfer and transit passengers through the airport for the month.”
“Domestic passenger numbers remained steady for December.”
Current and historic Cairns Airport passenger numbers and air traffic statistics are available at: http://www.cairnsairport.com.au/corporate/performance/passenger-statistics/