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Cairns

Cairns International Airport (YBCS/CNS) is the northernmost Australian airport ever to feature in Cross the Ditch!

Cairns is a major domestic and international tourist destination and the largest centre in Tropical Far North Queensland. Surrounded to the north and west by lush tropical rainforests, and the Great Barrier Reef to the east, Cairns Airport has one of the fastest growing passengers volumes in Australia.

Arrivals

Pilots arriving from Noumea should expect vectors after PESKY to one of the following arrivals, depending on the active runway:

• Cairns Runway 15: UPOLO EIGHT (UPOLO8)
• Cairns Runway 33: HENDO EIGHT BARIA TRANSITION (BARIA.HENDO8)

Departures

Pilots departing for New Zealand should expect one of the following departures, depending on the active runway:

• Cairns Runway 15: SWIFT EIGHT (SWIFT8)
• Cairns Runway 33: CAIRNS TWO RADAR DEPARTURE (CS2)

Expect Intersection Departures at Cairns

Both runways at Cairns require a roughly 600m backtrack to perform a full-length take-off.

In order to minimise runway occupancy time and allow the efficient flow of event traffic, where possible pilots should plan to perform an intersection departure from Taxiway B2 for Runway 15, or Taxiway B5 for Runway 33.

No Daylight Saving Time

Queensland (of which Cairns is a part) does not observe daylight saving time. As such local time is an hour behind the other eastern seaboard states which all operate on Australian Eastern Daylight Time during the Southern Summer months.

Not all simulators/sceneries reflect this correctly, so pilots should ensure that their in-sim UTC/Zulu time is correct before departing.