Tourism Australia welcomes new China flights for Cairns and Brisbane

Key facts

• News that China’s largest international carrier, China Southern Airlines, is to commence new flights to Cairns – its fifth port in Australia – could trigger a ‘tourism Renaissance’ for Tropical North Queensland.

• China’s largest international airline will operate three new weekly flights to Cairns and increase its existing four-per-week service to Brisbane to a daily operation.

Key quotes

• “With Chinese visitors to Cairns up nearly 40 per cent last year, the appeal is clearly there and, now, with this significant injection of air capacity, so is the improvement in air access we need from Australia’s fastest growing and most valuable overseas market,” Andrew McEvoy, Managing Director, Tourism Australia.

Full story

2012-08-16 — /travelprnews.com/ —  News that China’s largest international carrier, China Southern Airlines, is to commence new flights to Cairns – its fifth port in Australia – could trigger a ‘tourism Renaissance’ for Tropical North Queensland.

China’s largest international airline will operate three new weekly flights to Cairns and increase its existing four-per-week service to Brisbane to a daily operation. The new services will commence in December, ahead of the busy Chinese New Year holiday period.

China Southern is the second Chinese carrier in a month to announce new air services to Cairns, with China Eastern having also confirmed new direct flights from Shanghai.

Tourism Australia Managing Director, Andrew McEvoy, believes the latest success in securing additional Chinese air capacity will help local tourism operators capitalise on Cairns’ growing number of Chinese visitor arrivals, which increased 39 per cent last year.

“Cairns and Tropical North Queensland have done it tough these last few years with floods, Yasi and a drop off in visitors from some of their traditional Western markets, but we’re definitely seeing positive signs of a fight back, signalling what we all hope is a Renaissance for the region’s tourism industry,” Mr McEvoy said.

“With Chinese visitors to Cairns up nearly 40 per cent last year, the appeal is clearly there and, now, with this significant injection of air capacity, so is the improvement in air access we need from Australia’s fastest growing and most valuable overseas market.”

Mr McEvoy paid special tribute to Cairns International Airport, together with the regional, state and federal tourism authorities, for their combined efforts in securing flights from two of China’s largest airlines

China Southern is the leading carrier on the China-Australia route, carrying 22 per cent of all Chinese tourists into Australia during 2011. In just over two years, the airline has nearly quadrupled capacity to Australia, opening up direct access between China and Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth.

Mr McEvoy said increasing aviation capacity between China and Australia was critical to enable the Australian tourism industry to further benefit from the fast growing markets of Asia, and move the industry closer to its 2020 goal of doubling overnight tourism to up to A$140 billion annually by the end of the decade.

Contacts

Tourism Australia
Leo Seaton
Media Relations Manager
P. 61 2 9361 1363
E. lseaton@tourism.australia.com

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China Southern Airlines’ Australian cabin crew

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