Alliance Airlines to start Cairns – Sunshine Coast; Sunshine Coast opened new runway last week

Alliance Airlines is to begin a leisure-orientated service from Cairns to the Sunshine Coast, a popular area 108 kilometres north of Brisbane Airport.

The 1,318-kilometre service will take off on 17 July and operate on Mondays, Fridays, and Sundays. It’ll link two important locations within Queensland, known as the Sunshine State, with the state key for Australia’s tourism.

Until now, passengers travelling between Cairns and the Sunshine Coast had to travel to/from Brisbane, with Brisbane – Cairns having over 1.6 million seats last year with up to 103 weekly services.

Alliance’s new independent leisure operation is in direct contrast to its usual business: fly-in, fly-out services for the mining industry, together with operating on behalf of Virgin Australia.

Cairns Airport CEO, Norris Carter, said: “Research has shown there is significant demand for travellers from the Sunshine Coast region to visit Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. These new flights will make it easier for Queenslanders at both ends of the route to discover more of Queensland.”

Source: OAG Mapper.

Sunshine Coast opened new runway last week

Alliance currently operates a once-weekly mining charter, for Glencore, routing Brisbane – Sunshine Coast – Emerald and back using Fokker 100s.

The carrier’s new Cairns service was announced shortly after Sunshine Coast opened its longer and wider runway on 14 June.

Sunshine Coast had just over 1.5 million seats last year, up almost 4% YOY, mainly from Qantas growth to/from Sydney.

Jetstar is by far the largest carrier, with 56% of Sunshine Coast’s seats last year.

Source: OAG Schedules Analyser.