VOICES OF THE FAR NORTH
China Eastern flights to Cairns to resume for 2015
Monday December 8 2014, 9:30am
Cairns Airport will welcome back China Eastern Airlines this Sunday when the first flight of their seasonal service from Shanghai arrives in Cairns.
China is Australia's fastest-growing source of tourists and a vital market for tourism-based Far North Queensland towns such as Port Douglas.
The return service will operate every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday through until February when it will become a daily service for the four weeks of the Chinese New Year month.
Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Brown, said the flights are vital for our region as they reintroduce our direct connection with the Chinese mainland.
“China Eastern are commencing their seasonal service over a month earlier this year than last year and the daily flights during February will mean a total of 28 services for that month compared to 12 last year,” Mr Brown said.
“This service will give our 2015 Chinese New Year arrivals a great boost. In 2014 we welcomed around 20,000 Chinese passengers coming here on international and domestic services during Chinese New Year.”
“The latest International Visitors Survey showed that Chinese visitor numbers continue to rise with an increase of 6,500 or 4.4% for the year ending September 2014 compared to the previous year. With this evident demand for our destination in the Chinese market and China Eastern’s extended seasonal service we can expect this growth to continue.”
“I have been in China again this week to further discussion with China Eastern on a year round service direct to Cairns from Shanghai and also for talks with other airlines on direct services from various Chinese cities. We hope soon to add new Chinese services to our list of successes which include the recently announced direct flights to Cairns from Singapore via SilkAir, due to commence next May.”
