FLIGHTS ON THE RADAR

Pushing for direct flights in

CAIRNS Airport is actively seeking out new direct routes across Asia, the Middle East and North America with airlines Etihad and Emirates in its sights.

The flight path expansion plans were revealed when the airport’s corporate communications manager Helen Laird fronted a parliamentary tourism inquiry at the Cairns Convention Centre yesterday.

Last week’s announcement of regular flights between Cairns and Chinese city Guangzhou was only the beginning with a suite of new destinations in the works.

“Shanghai, I think, would be next on our list, as well as countless other Chinese mainland cities,” Ms Laird said.

Year-round flights from Seoul was another frontrunner – Jin Air currently operates only seasonal charters – with Taiwan also making the cut.

Ms Laird said there had “certainly been discussions” with Middle East-based airlines Etihad and Emirates and a strong North American tourism market had opened up new opportunities for a direct route to the US.

“At the moment, we attract quite a few North American visitors but they have to come through either Hong Kong, Singapore or New Zealand to get here,” she said.

Leichhardt MP Warren Entsch, who chaired the inquiry, suggested hotel developer Ghassan Aboud was eager to see Emirates open up a route to Cairns.

“Given the magnitude of his investment, it’s always a possibility,” he noted.

Ms Laird confirmed the airport would not apply for funding from the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.

She said the decision to scrap a $1 billion plan to expand the airport over 20 years had given investment security to civil aviation operators.

“A lot of that uncertainty was in relation to the grand vision … because where general aviation sits fronts the Captain Cook Highway. So it’s the most commercially viable land in the airport,” she said.

The area was earmarked for expansion, so general aviation tenants were not given term tenure. That has now changed.

“We’re working with them to help them develop their businesses,” Ms Laird said.

Picture: BRENDAN RADKE WARM WELCOME: Geoffrey Cooper and his wife Annette Cooper, of Auckland, New Zealand, enjoyed a stroll along the Cairns foreshore after arriving aboard the Sun Princess cruise ship.

Picture: MOHSIN ABRAR TARGET: Dubai in the United Arab Emirates could be another destination in the airport’s sights.

Picture: iStock UP NEXT: Shanghai in China is on the list of cities that Cairns Airport is targeting for direct flights.