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United Airlines is celebrating the 15th anniversary of non-stop service between Cairns and Guam this week. Launched by Continental Micronesia in 1998, the service is now operated under the United name following the merger between United and Continental in 2010. Alison Espley, United’s director of sales for Australia and New Zealand, said the route was an important part of United’s Australian network. “The route has proven to be a great success, as it opened up previously-inaccessible Micronesia through our Guam hub, allowing Australians to discover the lesser-known diving and surfing destinations across the region, including Palau and Pohnpei,” said Espley. “In particular, we have a very loyal Australian diving community which returns to the relatively unexplored region year after year. Travel agents in Australia are having great success in further stimulating this market and our numbers are growing.” United’s Guam hub continues to act as a gateway for Australians travelling from Northern Queensland to other international destinations. In addition to those connecting to Hawaii and beyond, the Guam route has been popular with Australians travelling to Japan, in particular for skiers visiting Sapporo in northern Japan. United serves nine destinations non-stop from Guam, including four on a daily basis (Tokyo/Narita, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka). Conversely, the Guam-Cairns route has also been popular among Japanese travellers and U.S. military personnel visiting Australia, which contributes to inbound tourism for Northern Queensland. Japan is Australia’s fifth largest inbound tourism market, with over 333,000 Japanese visitors arriving each year. With nearly $2.8 billion spent in year ending March 2012 in Tropical North Queensland, Cairns is part of Australia’s leading non-capital city tourism destination by value.1 To celebrate the anniversary, United joined forces with Tourism Tropical North Queensland (TTNQ) and Cairns Airport, inviting the top-selling travel agents from Guam to experience the natural wonders of Far North Queensland. As part of the familiarization, travel agents went on the Skyrail to Kuranda and visited Daintree and the Great Barrier Reef. United currently operates a twice-weekly Boeing 737-800 non-stop service between Cairns and Guam. Pictured above from left are: Carly Macias, MWR Navy; Edna Cortez, Top Travel; Quentin Koch, United; Fran Schier, Travel Pacificana; Gemma Pico, SATO AAFB; June Webber, MDA; Jana Stankovich, Cairns Airport; Wayne Lapthorne, Avis; Liz Webb, TTNQ; Kirill Litovchenko, United; Miriam McKenna, ITSA Gateway and Stephen Prasser, Cairns Airport. |
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