CAIRNS and Brisbane airports are 'ganging' up on Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne to lure the next direct flights from the rapidly growing Chinese market.

Cairns Airport boss Stephen Gregg said the two airports had representatives with Tourism Queensland in China at the moment to press their case for direct flights.

Operators see the lucrative Chinese market as a potential saviour for the Far North’s battling tourism industry.

Mr Gregg said the plan was for China Southern Airlines to fly to Cairns  from Guangzhou and then to Brisbane three or four times a week after the airline introduced daily flights to the state capital.

He said figures were showing that 40 per cent of Chinese tourists to Australia were coming to Cairns.

Other topics of talks in Asia were:

• More charter flights from China later this year.
  
• Korean charter flights as well.
  
• An expected 30 per cent drop in Japanese visitors in the next two to three months as a result of the earthquake and tsunami.
  

Mr Gregg said direct services from China were “almost certain.”

“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” he said.

Mr Gregg said leisure destinations such as Cairns were profitable for airlines but China Southern were “keeping their cards very close to their chest”.

He said the airport also had been discussing more charter flights from China as well as from Korea.

“It’s looking very promising. There’s a lot of interest,” he said.

Mr Gregg said they were likely in the last quarter of the year.

State Tourism Minister Jan Jarratt, who had a meeting with Mr Gregg yesterday, said Cairns rated highly as a favoured destination by Chinese travellers.

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