Cairns airport hopes to use its North Queensland location to secure direct traffic from Asia, particularly China.
Robert Evans, general manager aviation business development with the airport, said that at the moment passengers flying into Australia from Asia largely face a three-hour flight back from hubs such as Sydney and Brisbane to reach Cairns.
With nearly a quarter of leisure visitors to Australia coming from China, and Cairns a gateway to rainforests and the Great Barrier Reef, Evans believes there is huge potential to grow direct services into Cairns.
Last year, the airport handled 3.8 million passengers and international traffic grew nearly a fifth to 670,000 passengers.
And having completed a major redevelopment of its domestic terminal last year, Evans said work is beginning on an A$15 million ($14.5 million) refurbishment of its international terminal departure lounge.
Source: Flight Daily News
