Cathay Pacific has announced that they will be introducing daily flights from Hong Kong to Cairns, a boost that will see an additional 26,000 seats (hopefully with bums in them) coming to the area.

"This is another good sign for the local tourism industry and builds on the work that I have been doing with TTNQ and the Cairns Airport to bring more flights to Cairns," Member for Leichhardt, Jim Turnour said.

"For more than a decade the Far North tourism industry has been calling for regulatory reform to encourage more flights to Cairns and I have delivered these reforms in my first term."

"The Cathay Pacific service which triangulates through Brisbane is an example of the type of service that benefits from these aviation regulatory reforms."

Mr Turnour said that a priority was to attract new flights from the growing Chinese market.

"We (will) pursue direct services with China that would likely triangulate by flying first to Cairns then onto either Brisbane or Sydney."