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China Southern are staring to CNS in October.
Indeed they are!
Aviation Business: Cairns to get China Southern
Their reputation with the average Australian punters that I talk to is pretty poor so they'll probably struggle to generate much outbound demand (which seems to be pretty much the case with their ops in every Australian port) but it's about the only vaguely positive news for Cairns tourist operators in many, many years.
Indeed they are!
Aviation Business: Cairns to get China Southern
Their reputation with the average Australian punters that I talk to is pretty poor so they'll probably struggle to generate much outbound demand (which seems to be pretty much the case with their ops in every Australian port) but it's about the only vaguely positive news for Cairns tourist operators in many, many years.
True - but I wouldn't dismiss China Southern in the long run - and there is no doubt that they are in it for the long run. Everyone is laughing at the Chinese car manufacturing industry now but they won't be laughing in 3-5 years time. In my opinion it will be the same steep learning curve that other Chinese products have already succesfully surmounted.
If tourism comes alive again and enough people from mainland China want to see Australia then they will make money on it eventually. For the residents of Cairns it must be good news on two fronts - both inbound tourism bringing money back into the CNS economy, and lots of available seats out of CNS with possible 1 stop connections to all of China Southern's international destinations. i.e. potential 1 stop CNS to LHR. Try doing that on QF or VA. Bit of a bummer for CX though - hopefully they can stay in CNS.
China Southern Airlines plans to launch its 5th destination in Australia, with 3 weekly service to Cairns. The flight will operate as Guangzhou – Brisbane – Cairns – Guangzhou pattern, between 18DEC12 to 01MAR13. Service to Brisbane as a result will increase from 4 weekly to daily.
Schedule has been loaded into the GDS around 1000hrs GMT, and reservation is expected to open shortly.
CZ335 CAN0900 – 1945BNE2130 – 2345CNS 332 246
CZ336 CNS0120 – 0630CAN 332 357
China Eastern today (20JUL12) begins opening reservation for its new Shanghai Pu Dong – Cairns service, due to start from 30OCT12. The airline will operate three times a week with A330-200 aircraft. Flight schedule was loaded earlier this month (reported on 09JUL12), however it did not open reservation until today.
Note there is a minor modification to planned operational schedule:
MU731 PVG2100 – 0800+1CNS 332 246
MU732 CNS1000 – 1620PVG 332 357
Interesting as we near September that the CNS services are still not open for reservations!