International Passengers Lead Cairns Airport Growth

Growth in international passenger numbers continued to increase strongly at Cairns Airport during July.

Cairns Airport welcomed a total of 510,000 passengers for the month, which included 59,710 international passengers, 422,520 domestic passengers and 28,650 transfer and transit passengers.

Cairns Airport Chief Commercial Officer Aviation, Paul McLean, said international passengers were up 9.2% compared to July 2016.

“Jetstar’s Tokyo and Osaka services to Cairns performed particularly well showing a 16% increase or 22,800 more passengers for the month,” Mr McLean said.

“There were 19 more flights operating on these services in July 2017 than there were in July 2016.

“There was also strong growth on Silk Air’s Singapore – Cairns route with 48% or 5,900 more passengers, boosted by the introduction of a fifth weekly service which becomes year round in November. In July 2016 Silk Air were only operating three services per week.”

“We welcome the increase in passenger numbers and seat capacity from our existing international airline partners as they respond to demand for the destination and bring more visitors here.”

“We look forward to a further boost in international passenger numbers in the coming months as new services commence and more of our existing airlines increase their flight frequency. China Southern’s Guangzhou – Cairns flights will start in December, Jin Air’s seasonal service from Seoul returns over the 2018 Chinese New Year and Hong Kong Airlines will increase to daily flights during that time.”

Domestic passenger numbers continued to show steady growth with a 2.7% increase compared to the previous year.

“Our busiest routes of Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, which have services operated by all four major domestic airlines, continued to lead this growth.”

Current and historic Cairns Airport passenger numbers and air traffic statistics are available at: http://www.cairnsairport.com.au/corporate/performance/passenger-statistics/