TIME IS ON OUR SIDE

Report ranks Cairns Airport as most punctual in Australia

CAIRNS Airport has been rated the most punctual in Australia and New Zealand.

Cairns has topped OAG's 2019 Punctuality League, which said 83.7 per cent of flights at the airport were categorised as on-time, ahead of Adelaide, second, and third-placed Brisbane.

leased its Punctuality League winners list for 2019 and the numbers could not be better for Cairns Airport.

It was named the most punctual airport in Australia and New Zealand last year, with a whopping 83.7 per cent of flights running on time.

Cairns also made the top 10 list for small airports anywhere in the world, a field taken out by Belarusian capital Minsk.

Hong Kong Airlines provided the most on-the-clock service in the Asia-Pacific, followed by Hong Kong Airways and Qantas in third place.

Cairns Airport chief operations manager Kate McCreery-Carr said the honour was testament to the hard work of the terminal staff, airlines and ground crew.

“Besides safety and security, it is our next top priority,” she said.

“It’s by no means something we do in isolation.

“We need to have the facilities – check-in, security screening and everything else – all resourced correctly, and en- sure the availability of bays and gates.”

Ms McCreery-Carr said a planned $55 million redevelopment of the domestic terminal, due by 2020, would further streamline the process.

“At the moment we have congestion at gates at some times of the day,” she said.

“We intend to reconfigure CAIRNS locals are taking holidays without leaving their hometown with one tourism operator reporting a noticeable spike in domestic visitors over summer.

Clifton Beach resident Abbey Hastie chose to spend her break at the Cairns Coconut Resort at Woree rather than venture down south.

“I don’t like to travel too far and everything we need is right here in paradise,” she said.

The park, bought by ASXlisted tourism giant Ingenia Holidays for $50 million in 2017, has experienced a surge in last-minute local bookings for January.

Resort manager Richard Yazbeck said the business was booming.

“Since the last week of school, we’ve seen a number of local families from the Tablelands area and Townsville region phoning up at the lastminute because they’ve left budgeting late for the summer holidays,” he said.

“We’ve also received calls from empty nesters and grey nomads who are on the road for the holidays and are looking to book a caravan site or villa for a couple of nights.

“We have the capacity to accommodate approximately 1300 people with 220 caravan sites and have 135 fully equipped villas.” the terminal to give more seating at the gates and redeploy retail stores at other places.

“It’s just putting things in the right place.”

News of the top punctuality ranking was very well received by airport management.

“This is our kind of win – a collective win,” Ms McCreeryCarr said.