Cairns residents will gain non-stop flights to Manila and more choice to Auckland come December as Philippine Airlines kicks off its newest route: Manila to Auckland via Cairns.
Running four-times-weekly in each direction, the Cairns stopover allows easy access to the city itself and to the Great Barrier Reef for Filipinos and Kiwis, while Aussies can book trips to either Manila or Auckland without visiting the other city.
On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, PR219 leaves Cairns at 11:30pm to reach Manila at 3:30am the following morning. In reverse, PR218 pushes back in Manila at 11:45pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, touching down in Cairns at 8am the next day.
Auckland bound? You’ll take to the skies at 9am on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays to reach New Zealand at 4pm, with return flights available at 6:30pm on the same days and reaching Cairns at 10:30pm.
Using an Airbus A320, passengers have a choice of either business class or economy on all flights, with those making the full journey from Manila to Auckland enjoying a transit time in Cairns of just one hour.
Competing airline SilkAir is gearing up to launch its own Cairns-Asia flights next week with a new non-stop service to Singapore, and additional Singapore-Darwin flights that will also continue onwards to Cairns.
Read: SilkAir to launch Cairns-Singapore flights, boost Darwin-Singapore
Follow Australian Business Traveller on Twitter: we're @AusBT
Chris is a a former contributor to Executive Traveller.
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1250
If this is successful I would be shocked. The timings are very very poor! Who wants to arrive into Manila at 3:30am?
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
04 Mar 2014
Total posts 38
No different to the BNE-DRW-MNL flight which arrives at 3:55am. I see this working - Big Filipino community in Auckland, and the fact they can carry passengers on CNS-AKL unlike the BNE-DRW where you cant buy it just as a domestic flight.
07 Oct 2012
Total posts 1250
Perhaps, but not the best yield on an expat Filiipino, hence why Cebu Pacific exists.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Apr 2013
Total posts 6
i dont know where you are getting your info from. the bne flight doesnt arrive at 03:55am its
10:40
Terminal: INTERNATIONAL T
Tue, Sep 01 2015
14:30
14 Apr 2014
Total posts 46
It surely brings competition to Air New Zealand!
16 May 2014
Total posts 99
Well it didnt work for Perth.
Cannot see it working for Cairns and Auckland.
They will give it a go and then end up cancelling.... good on them tho for giving things a go.
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
17 Apr 2013
Total posts 6
it didnt work for perth becasue there is already a flood of other competitors competing for the transit market to manila. i think i dont need to list them for you?
16 May 2014
Total posts 99
No it was more that they put traffic through Darwin. Population of Filipinos in Perth is extremely large.
Also Perth is quiet a bit bigger than Cairns
NZ Elite
03 Jul 2014
Total posts 110
Interesting to see if this is enough to dissaude Cebu Pacific from flying to AKL; I heard/read they were looking at it.
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on Philippine Airlines launches Manila-Cairns-Auckland flights