Hong Kong Airlines bring more flights to Queensland

Published Tuesday, 11 October, 2016 at 10:05 AM

JOINT STATEMENT

Premier and Minister for the Arts
The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk

Minister for Education and Minister for Tourism and Major Events
The Honourable Kate Jones

Hong Kong Airlines will fly two additional services into the Gold Coast and Cairns from December delivering an extra $70 million in overnight visitor expenditure to Queensland.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Tourism and Major Events Minister Kate Jones today said the extra flights would boost the highly successful route between Hong Kong, the Gold Coast and Cairns, increasing the number of inbound flights from three to five per week.

“These additional weekly services have the potential to bring an extra 30,000 inbound passengers and combined with the existing service, deliver 59,000 seats each year,” the Premier said.

“Already we have secured more than 600,000 extra seats with the potential to bring an extra $480 million in tourism expenditure for our economy.

“That means more tourism jobs for Queensland.”

Ms Jones said the additional flights were secured through the Palaszczuk Government’s Attracting Aviation Investment Fund (AAIF).

“These extra flights came about through our partnership with Gold Coast Tourism, Cairns Airport, Tourism Tropical North Queensland and Gold Coast Airport,” she said.

“We know that increasing our airline capacity is key to growing tourism to Queensland.

“We will continue to work with Tourism and Events Queensland, international airlines, regional tourism organisations and major airports to secure more international flights.”

Gold Coast Tourism Chief Executive Officer Martin Winter said: “This is further evidence of the importance of air access from China to the Gold Coast, with a 33 per cent growth in the China market in the past twelve months and a 66 per cent growth from Hong Kong.”

Gold Coast Airport Chief Operating Officer Marion Charlton said: “The thrice weekly services have exceeded our performance expectations; we are confident the increased services will be well received from both an inbound and outbound perspective.”

 Tourism Tropical North Queensland Chief Executive Officer Alex de Waal said: “It is great to see aviation capacity growing with the increase in demand for Queensland destinations.”

Cairns Airport General Manager Aeronautical Janice Antonson welcomed the additional flights: “These extra rotations will ensure this popular service is a major contributor to the continuing growth in passenger numbers from China and other parts of Asia that we see at Cairns Airport.”

Ms Jones said the additional flights provided visitors from Greater China and Hong Kong with even more access to two of Queensland’s most popular destinations.

Media contact:

Premier's office 3719 7000

Minister's office 3719 7530