Qantas we need you [to service Cairns Internationally]

[Limewood]

CX are feeling the pinch, old aircraft and not such good reviews of late.

Why not fly Int. passengers from our main Aussie ports to Cairns and then out to HKG, that way they get to see it all roundtrip. plus airline gets outgoing freight. Ive done the CNS/HKG/CNS flights many times over past two decades on CX and the plane was full or near full both ways, so no its not yield IMO.

 

[dajop]

No they haven't replaced a JQ service to MCY.

I did say supplemented or replaced. Mainly supplemented though.

 

[esseeeayeenn]

QF could do a SYD-CNS-HKG flight similar to the MEL-PER-LHR service.
Of course I am not at all influenced in this opinion by the potential availability of an international sector SYD-CNS and the possibility of access to the F lounge.

 

[Matt_01]

Let's be brutally honest here...... airlines don't cancel profitable routes.

You nailed it in the first line.

 

[Pushka]

GBR is thought to attract circa 2,000,000 visitors per annum......

Kangaroo Island circa 200,000.

Why pick just Kangaroo Island?

 

[docjames]

Barossa circa 225k

https://tourism.sa.gov.au/documents/CORP/documentMedia.ashx?A=%7BEE5EB4D7-4678-4B5D-9EF6-CC2219D60680%7D&B=False

 

[Rangalad]

Way back when, QFI had a mini hub at CNS.
Flights to LAX,NGO NRT and SIN

IIRC
QF25 SYD-CNS-HNL-LAX
QF59 SYD-CNS-NGO
QF61 CNS-DRW-SIN
QF69 BNE-CNS-NRT

 

[Limewood]

Do you really think QF would step up given the above?

Well yes, Im guessing Alan after reading my thread will be on the phone to Cairns Airport demanding the empty slot

 

[Vic]

Qantas (Group) do service international demand from Cairns.

 

[CaptJCool]

Let's be brutally honest here...... airlines don't cancel profitable routes.
into).


Cairns may be booming but either nobody wants to visit there (and fly CX), or not enough premium yield is coming out of FNQ to HKG.

Do you really think QF would step up given the above?

No I don’t

QFF would have an enormous capacity to observe spending mix plus correlate with how much of that is on their own services (share of wallet)

Let’s face a reality here

What’s in it for Hong Kong nationals to fly direct to Cairns?
And with just around 300,000 local to Cairns, what’s in it for them to fly to Hong Kong?
Say 200 seats a day, that’s about 75,000 PAX a year out of 300,000 just for one international location. That’s a fair ask seeing there’s only 36,000,000 IN/out PAX pa across Australia including migrants, international students plus Kiwis going back and forth, business meetings, conferences, trade shows and tourists.

A long time ago Cairns was the hub for heavy Japanese investment (golf courses, hotels etc) and a longer time before, during WW1, the President of the Senate “lived” there and took a train to Melbourne (fun fact but terribly irrelevant) and kept a house in Both Cairns and Melbourne (lollies and their earnings)
.....

 

[jb747]

If Cairns were viable, the routes that it did have would not have been slowly wound back. The last thing I recall about Cairns was that they were complaining that there weren't enough airlines there, because they wanted price competition. Oh, and they wanted a curfew....

 

[kevrosmith]

I don't think you'll find many people in Cairns who would want a curfew... oh except those southerners who've moved up in the last (x) years and chose to buy in beach-suburbs which are directly under the flight paths that have been there for over 30 years.... Real long-term locals know how important tourism and the airport are to the local economy, so would rarely have a complaint.

 

[dajop]

It will be interesting to see what SQ does with CNS. They are currently in the process of scaling back Silk Air in preparation for phasing out the brand. Routes will be either transferred to mainline (including SQ narrow bodies) or Scoot. Unlikely to lose the service, but could go either way - Scoot or Singapore Airlines. A good sign so far that it has remained an MI destination. A lot of MI destinations have already been moved across to Scoot.

 

[p--and--t]

Peeling back some of the scales in my memory, I seem to recollect that Cairns only came into any sort of Aviation prominence when one of the Compass's? decided to base there and then it stimulated others to compete on the route. Otherwise it was a bit of a backwater (Aviation-wise) before that.

As an aside, maybe legacy international flights were scheduled via CNS because of equipment limitations which no longer exists. e.g. QF used to have 5 hops to LHR but now 0 or 1 depending on which coast you are travelling from.

 

[turtlemichael]

It's news to me that the economy in Cairns is booming. After the Crystalbrook developments there is very little building on the horizon. The vacancy level of commercial and retail properties in Cairns, the beaches and Port Douglas looks as high as during the GFC and earlier crises. This report gives the best reasons why QF will not be coming with international services any time soon. https://cairnseconomy.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/coughmings-2019-1.pdf After living there 20+ years I still love it but I am realistic at its prospects.

 

[justinbrett]

I blame the retirement of the B767s

 

[cosi]

CX are feeling the pinch, old aircraft and not such good reviews of late.

I was very happy with my only option from Per-Hkg last Monday on CX142 - no complaints.

2 meals served - breakfast and lunch and both very good, with the new style service.

I confirm regional on CX is dated and needs urgent attention, but the connecting flight from Hkg-Hnd was 95% full.

Looking forward to my ride home next Wednesday from Hkg-Per on a A350-1000

 

[cosi]

BTW Limewood, Cairns may be booming on the tourist front, but QF draw enormous revenue from Perth and WA from interstate flight and local mining flights, yet WA has only QF international flights to London and Singapore and seasonal flights to Auckland.

From Perth, CX flies 10 times a week, SQ 4 per day and now the very popular daily ANA direct from Narita.

Where QF - 4,000kms away on the ground in Sydney counting the cash from the West - its a joke for WA.

 

[dajop]

Peeling back some of the scales in my memory, I seem to recollect that Cairns only came into any sort of Aviation prominence when one of the Compass's? decided to base there and then it stimulated others to compete on the route. Otherwise it was a bit of a backwater (Aviation-wise) before that.

Also was a hub for QF's Australian Airlines v2.0 from 2003-2006:

-

 

[samh004]

GBR is thought to attract circa 2,000,000 visitors per annum......

Not all visitors to the GBR come from an appropriate direction to make CNS their first stop, and I would imagine a lot of visitors probably visit other places too, making a direct service redundant.

QF have not been shy about supplementing or replacing JQ services with QF services, in recent years. SYD/MEL-OOL/DPS, SYD-MCY, MEL-SIN are routes that come to mind. If QF determined they could make more money putting their limited fleet on CNS routes than elsewhere, I am sure they would.

I do wonder if JQ added a CNS-HKG service if @Limewood would fly it or not?

Let's be brutally honest here...... airlines don't cancel profitable routes.

Exactly.

Ive done the CNS/HKG/CNS flights many times over past two decades on CX

As have I, and I hated them every single time, of course, I was always continuing on, making the stop a pain in either direction. My family – living in HKG – also started avoiding the route like the plague, as have family friends who are CX Diamond+.