SilkAir launches flight to Australia’s adventure capital Cairns

SilkAir launched a new flight route to Cairns, Australia on Saturday, making it the second Australian destination after Darwin.

Flight MI 828, a Boeing 737- 800 aircraft from the regional wing of Singapore Airlines departed Changi Airport Terminal 2 at about 2am on Saturday morning, and arrived at Cairns International Airport at 10:30am local time.

At the end of the six and a half hour flight, passengers and cabin crew were greeted by an inauguration ceremony consisting of an indigenous performance and a furry guest – a koala – at the arrival hall.

The ceremony was attended by members of the press as well as SilkAir’s chief executive Leslie Thng and Singapore’s High Commissioner to Australia Burhan Gafoor.

Flights from Singapore to Cairns will operate every Monday, Thursday and Saturday. The Monday and Thursday flights go to Cairns via Darwin, and the return flight on Saturday to Singapore also goes via Darwin.

Treasurer of Queensland Curtis Pitt expressed gratitude at the new partnership, saying the Queensland economy will be expecting 20,000 travellers from Singapore and revenue of AUD$14 million from tourist spending during the initial year of the launch.

Singapore Airlines started flights to Cairns on 28 October 1995. Unfortunately, operations were forced to cease on 25 March 2001 due to “unfavourable market conditions”, Thng said. 

Cairns is known as the adventure capital of Australia. It is home to two popular nature reserves, the UNESCO listed Great Barrier Reef and a 170 million years old Daintree rainforest.

With the launch of this new flight route, SilkAir together with Singapore Airlines now offers 121 services to seven points across Australia each week. These seven points are, Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney.