Total passengers at Cairns Airport during the year ending June 2017 grew by 5% compared with the previous year, to reach over 5.2 million
Cairns Airport Chief Executive Officer, Norris Carter, said growth had been recorded across all passenger segments of international, domestic and transfer and transit.
“There were 7.6% more international passengers for a total of 659,010,” Mr Carter said.
“This figure has been boosted by the strong performance we’ve seen on our Japan routes from Tokyo and Osaka. In the month of June 2017, for example, passengers on these routes were up 19%.”
“Also contributing to our international passenger growth was a new airline for Cairns, Jin Air, who ran a seasonal service from Seoul from December to February while Hong Kong Airlines, SilkAir and Jetstar have all increased flight frequencies from Hong Kong, Singapore and Bali respectively, in response to passenger demand.”
“Domestic passenger numbers increased by 4.0% to reach 4,239,850 for the year ending June 2017.
“Around one third, or over a million, of the domestic passengers at Cairns Airport are international visitors who have arrived into Australia, or will depart the country, via another city.”
“Our push to increase direct international flights to Cairns, in partnership with the Queensland Government, Tourism Queensland, Tourism Tropical North Queensland, Tourism Australia and Cairns Regional Council, has resulted in the recent announcement by China Southern they will commence a three per week year round service from Guangzhou starting in December.”
Current and historic Cairns Airport passenger numbers and air traffic statistics are available here.