SCHOOL HOLIDAY Air deal lands $64m boost

A ‘game-changing’ Cairns-Shenzhen link

UP to $64 million is expected to be injected into the Tropical North Queensland economy over the next two years with Cairns now home to the fastest direct flight between mainland China and Australia.

The inaugural Hainan Airlines flight from Shenzhen touched down in Cairns yesterday morning, marking a second new flight path from China to Cairns Airport in as many weeks.

With a travel time of about seven hours, Cairns will draw two flights a week from Shenzhen, attracting an extra 30,000 visitors.

Tourism Industry Development Minister Kate Jones said the new flight path was a game changer for the industry with Chinese tourists Queensland’s most valuable and fastest growing international market.

“This is not only a game changer for this local community, but for Queensland and indeed Australia,” she said.

“The fact that Hainan Airlines feels confident to invest in a flight directly into Cairns and directly into Brisbane speaks volumes of their investment and what they see as the future of the relationship between China and Queensland.”

Hainan Airlines chief pilot Chengda Li said the airline was ranked in the top 10 in the world and had the highest safety rating of any airline in China.

“It’s our honour to establish the bridge between Shenzhen and Cairns,” he said.

“Shenzhen is the fastest developing city in China and Cairns is also a beautiful city in Australia, so for us we will try our best to provide the support on political, economic and cultural exchange.”

Cairns Airport chief executive officer Norris Carter said the new link was a great opportunity to expand the region’s export market.

“There’s a lot of great high quality produce here and we already send fresh, live coral trout up to Hong Kong,” he said.

“So with all the new capacity that’s come available with these flights, we think there are opportunities to fill that with produce from this region.

“For example last year when Jin Air was here they took 7 tonnes of mangoes on every flight up to South Korea.

“Mangoes that you buy a tray for $20, they sell for about $20 each in Korea.”

Ms Jones said the State Government was looking at growing agribusiness, exporting seafood and tropical fruits from Far North Queensland through the Shenzhen flight.

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Pictures: STEWART McLEAN ARRIVED: Hainan Airlines station manager Qiguo, Cairns Airport chief operations officer Kate McCreery Carr, Hainan Airlines sales manager of Guangzhou branch Jiajia Zhou, sales manager of Shenzhen branch Chunshun Feng, general manager of Shenzhen...

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WELCOME: The first Hainan Airlines flight from Shenzhen.

THANKS: Kate Jones and Hainan Airlines chief pilot Chengda Li.