The Chief Financial Officer of Cairns Airport, Ian Maltman, said this week that the airport was working on nine new overseas services plus three extra destinations within Australia.

Addressing a Cairns Chamber of Commerce luncheon, he revealed that the nine targets are Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Beijing in China; Nagoya in Japan; Seoul in Korea; Taiwan, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia; the Middle East and North America. Mackay, Newcastle and Canberra are the Australian routes.

He said the current economic environment was strong for an inbound tourism destination.

“Exchange rates and oil prices are underpinning a favourable trading environment for Cairns in terms of sustainable underlying route economics, affordability of Cairns to the domestic market (relative to overseas markets) and relative value proposition of Cairns driving international visitation,” Mr Maltman said.