Domestic and international passenger numbers at Cairns Airport grew during April this year
compared to last year.
Chief Executive Officer, Norris Carter, said the strongest growth was in domestic passenger
numbers which increased by 13.1% or 42,160 to a total of 363,620 for the month.
“There were good numbers across all our domestic airlines, with the major increases recorded
on the trunk routes of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne,” Mr Carter said.
“Melbourne was the strongest with a 22% increase compared to April 2016, while Brisbane and
Sydney were 12% and 13% higher respectively. The total number of flights on these routes
increased by 6%.”
“The growth translates into significant benefits for the region’s tourism industry, even taking
into account that some of the increase in domestic passenger numbers was due to the timing of
the Easter holidays and disruption in other parts of Queensland due to the impacts of Cyclone
Debbie.”
“Anecdotally we are still seeing good numbers of Chinese passengers travelling on domestic
services to and from Cairns, particularly on the Sydney route. We expect the next round of
International Visitor Survey results will verify this.”
“We recorded a 3.1% or 1,700 increase in international passenger numbers to a total of 53,940.
There was steady growth across all the direct international flights on our network with the
Japan routes continuing to perform well, following a record month in March."
Current and historic Cairns Airport passenger numbers and air traffic statistics are available here.