Passenger movements
356,062
May 2026
Cairns Airport
CNS · 6 monitored domestic routes · data from Jan 1985
International share
15%
53,397 movements
Aircraft movements
3,620
landings and take-offs
vs 2019
87.2%
of pre-pandemic average
Airport traffic: to May 2026
Cairns handled 356,062 passenger movements in May 2026, the 7th busiest of the 22 monitored airports. Traffic is still 13% below its 2019 average. Across its 3 monitored routes, 0.6% of flights were cancelled — well below the national average.
A passenger movement is not the same as a passenger. Every domestic passenger is counted twice — once departing, once arriving — while an international passenger is counted once. That is the official definition, and it is why these totals cannot be added to the route figures elsewhere on this site.
Passenger movements, 1985 to 2026
To May 2026 · Marks show industry events
Aircraft movements
To May 2026
Annual passenger history
Observed calendar-year passenger movements from 1985 to 2025; missing airport-year values remain gaps. This is passenger movements, not route passengers.
Latest observation: 4,718,501 movements in 2025. The blue marker is latest; orange marks the historical peak.
National rank by year
Lower rank is higher on the chart. Each year uses only airports with a valid value that year; the denominator can change.
Latest national rank
#7 of 100
in 2025
Then & now
+4,191,423
+795.22%
Historical peak
4,945,798
2018 · #7 of 95
From 1985 to 2025, annual passenger movements increased by 4,191,423 (+795.22%). The national rank moved from #10 of 91 to #7 of 100.
Show all annual observations
| Year | Passenger movements | National rank |
|---|---|---|
| 1985 | 527,078 | #10 of 91 |
| 1986 | 662,566 | #9 of 91 |
| 1987 | 851,791 | #9 of 92 |
| 1988 | 1,027,489 | #8 of 82 |
| 1989 | 863,867 | #6 of 81 |
| 1990 | 1,069,976 | #6 of 85 |
| 1991 | 1,637,411 | #6 of 90 |
| 1992 | 1,797,896 | #6 of 89 |
| 1993 | 2,092,196 | #6 of 92 |
| 1994 | 2,369,742 | #6 of 92 |
| 1995 | 2,502,424 | #6 of 90 |
| 1996 | 2,645,911 | #6 of 92 |
| 1997 | 2,663,348 | #6 of 94 |
| 1998 | 2,603,775 | #6 of 94 |
| 1999 | 2,683,567 | #6 of 94 |
| 2000 | 2,812,846 | #6 of 94 |
| 2001 | 2,690,311 | #6 of 94 |
| 2002 | 2,853,899 | #6 of 92 |
| 2003 | 2,993,127 | #6 of 93 |
| 2004 | 3,428,473 | #6 of 94 |
| 2005 | 3,705,131 | #6 of 93 |
| 2006 | 3,758,786 | #6 of 93 |
| 2007 | 3,768,462 | #7 of 92 |
| 2008 | 3,748,632 | #7 of 94 |
| 2009 | 3,538,196 | #7 of 93 |
| 2010 | 3,749,970 | #7 of 94 |
| 2011 | 3,865,169 | #7 of 95 |
| 2012 | 4,080,554 | #7 of 95 |
| 2013 | 4,246,422 | #7 of 95 |
| 2014 | 4,318,309 | #7 of 96 |
| 2015 | 4,521,042 | #7 of 96 |
| 2016 | 4,850,514 | #7 of 95 |
| 2017 | 4,940,484 | #7 of 96 |
| 2018 | 4,945,798 | #7 of 95 |
| 2019 | 4,778,181 | #7 of 97 |
| 2020 | 1,706,151 | #7 of 98 |
| 2021 | 2,309,988 | #6 of 99 |
| 2022 | 3,807,874 | #7 of 100 |
| 2023 | 4,458,721 | #7 of 99 |
| 2024 | 4,695,937 | #7 of 100 |
| 2025 | 4,718,501 | #7 of 100 |
National rank is calculated independently for each year using standard competition ranking. Equal passenger totals share a rank; the denominator is the count of airports with a valid value in that year. No missing value is interpolated or treated as zero, and the data alone does not identify reasons for traffic changes.
Busiest routes from Cairns
| Route | Passengers | Month |
|---|---|---|
| Cairns ↔ Brisbane | 123,598 | Jul 2026 |
| Cairns ↔ Sydney | 96,824 | Jul 2026 |
| Cairns ↔ Melbourne | 92,767 | Jul 2026 |
| Cairns ↔ Gold Coast | 18,912 | Sep 2022 |
| Cairns ↔ Adelaide | 15,716 | Oct 2023 |
| Cairns ↔ Townsville | 10,948 | Oct 2021 |
Route passengers are a different measure from airport movements above — one trip, not two.
Punctuality on Cairns routes
Across all 3 monitored routes touching this airport, 0.6% of scheduled flights were cancelled over the 12 months to Aug 2026 — against a national average of 2.0%.
| Route | Cancelled | On time | Flights |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cairns ↔ Sydney | 0.9% | 79.0% | 5,540 |
| Cairns ↔ Melbourne | 0.7% | 73.4% | 4,449 |
| Cairns ↔ Brisbane | 0.3% | 80.5% | 9,865 |
Punctuality: 12 months to Aug 2026
Cairns in numbers
| Busiest month on record | 484,385 · Jul 2018 |
| National ranking, 2025 | #7 of 100 |
| Busiest year on record | 4,945,798 · 2018 |
| Data coverage | Jan 1985 – May 2026 (497 months) |
| Domestic share, May 2026 | 85.0% |
| 2019 monthly average | 398,182 |