Cairns Airport wins Asian route expansion with two new airline agreements

Cairns Airport has announced direct international service agreements with Vietnam Airlines and Cebu Pacific that will add Hanoi and Manila as direct international destinations from 2026, expanding the airport's international route network for the first time in four years and providing the Far North Queensland tourism industry with new source markets that have been identified as high-growth opportunities for Australian tropical tourism.

Cairns Airport chief executive Norris Carter said the route additions reflected the airport's sustained investment in airline development relationships over the past two years, during which the airport had worked with Tourism Australia, Tourism and Events Queensland, and the FCAI to build the commercial case for airlines whose yield analysis supported direct services to Cairns ahead of more established Australian gateways.

The Vietnam Airlines service — a direct Hanoi to Cairns route operating three times weekly — is the first direct Vietnam service to any Australian city outside Sydney and Melbourne, reflecting the growing number of Vietnamese tourists identifying the Great Barrier Reef as a priority destination and the increasing income levels in Vietnam's urban population that are supporting long-haul international leisure travel.

The Cairns tourism industry's response was enthusiastic, with the FNQ tourism council estimating that the two new routes will bring an additional 45,000 international visitors per year to Cairns at an average visitor expenditure of approximately $3,200 per visitor, generating approximately $144 million in new annual visitor spending in the regional economy.

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