Virgin Australia Announces A New International Route From Cairns To Tokyo Haneda

Virgin Australia has capped off a huge year, announcing a new international route with a daily return Cairns-Tokyo (Haneda) service taking off on June 28, 2023. The highly anticipated route, operating for the first time, is being launched in partnership with the Queensland Government and Cairns Airport through the Queensland Government’s Attracting Aviation Investment Fund.

To further bolster flight access between Australia and Japan, Virgin Australia will strengthen its strategic partnership with All Nippon Airways (ANA), the largest airline in Japan and a trusted and long-standing Japanese carrier, creating greater value and choice for the airline’s customers.

The partnership will not only see Virgin Australia and ANA provide members of the airline’s Velocity and ANA Mileage Club frequent flyer programs reciprocal loyalty benefits throughout 2023 and beyond when travelling on each carrier, but greater codeshare flight access between the countries.

Virgin Australia plans to operate the route using new Boeing 737-8 MAX 8 aircraft.

This announcement wraps up an extraordinary year for Virgin Australia which returned to profitability following completion of the first stage of the airline’s transformation program and recently celebrated Velocity’s 11-million member milestone. Since international borders re-opened 12 months ago, the airline has resumed flights to Bali, Fiji, and Queenstown, with Vanuatu, Samoa and Tokyo commencing in the first half of 2023. Today the airline also celebrates the first flight from Adelaide to Bali departing at 5:50pm local time, with plans to commence Australia’s first ever Gold Coast to Bali service on 29 March 2023.

*Subject to regulatory approval.

Virgin Australia aircraft photo gallery: