THE first 100 passengers on board the new Pacific Blue service from Auckland arrived at Cairns airport last night.

The tourism industry celebrated the arrival as the start of the recovery of international flights as families reunited from across the Tasman.

Cairns couple Matt Cooper and Roxanne Lyon, who is due to give birth on Sunday, welcomed her parents from Christchurch.

Brenda Lyon said the five-and-a-half-hour flight was enjoyable.

"We usually get over once a year but now it might be twice," she said.

Passengers on the inaugural flight received complimentary champagne and a holiday package to Port Douglas was auctioned off.

Many passengers walked out wearing T-shirts saying: "Good Reef! We’re heading to Cairns."

Tourism Tropical North Queensland chief executive officer Rob Giason said the twice weekly service added about 19,000 inbound seats annually to the trans-Tasman route into Cairns, increasing capacity by about 80 per cent.

He said the regional economy would receive a $14 million a year boost from the new flights.

"It’s a tremendous boost to the economy. We only capture 5 per cent of the Australian share of the New Zealand market. With more flights we believe we can grow that," Mr Giason said.

Kate McCreery-Carr, Cairns airport general manager for commercial and terminals, said the airport was growing its relationship with Virgin airlines.

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