News

Cairns-Shanghai Flights Later This Year

Queensland tourism minister Jann Stuckey is expected to make an announcement this week that China Eastern Airlines is to begin flying into Cairns direct from Shanghai. According to The Cairns Post, the thrice-weekly flights will begin in four months. Ms Stuckey and treasurer Tim Nicholls are in China as part of a trade mission. The state government has used part of its $8 million aviation attraction fund to entice the airline. A spokeswoman for Ms Stuckey told the The Cairns Post that the government was “delighted that negotiations have been progressing well with China Eastern towards commencing direct flights from mainland China to Cairns”.

The start of the flights coincide with the peak Chinese travel season between November and March and include the popular Chinese New Year.

Cairns Airport has been negotiating with China Eastern as well as China Southern Airways which has already confirmed it will fly to Cairns by 2015.

Airport chief executive officer Kevin Brown has said with growth in Chinese visitors of 39% in the past year without a direct service from mainland China, the airport had high hopes for even higher growth levels once direct services were established.

The airport is also advanced on negotiations for direct links to Singapore, believed to be with Jetstar, which currently operates an indirect service via Darwin.

Related Articles

0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Back to top button
WP Tumblr Auto Publish Powered By : XYZScripts.com
AccomNews
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x