China Southern boosts Brisbane-Guangzhou, adds Cairns flights

China Southern is gearing up for more Brisbane flights and adding Cairns services with a new thrice-weekly "triangle" route through Queensland.

The direct Brisbane-Guangzhou service will remain at four weekly return flights, but from 18 December the airline will add three new flights via Cairns.

A side effect of this will be to boost Brisbane-Guangzhou flights to daily, although of course three of those will have a stopover at the far north Queensland gateway.

The Airbus A330 planes familiar to existing China Southern passengers will be used on the flights.

CZ335 will depart Guangzhou at 0900 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, arriving in Brisbane at 1945.

It will then leave Brisbane at 2130, arriving in Cairns at 2345. At 0120 the next morning, it becomes CZ336 and returns from Cairns to Guangzhou, arriving at 0630.

CZ's new 'triangle' route connects Brisbane, Cairns and Guangzhou
gcmap.com

(In case you were wondering, "CAN" is Guangzhou's main airport at Baiyun, a legacy of when the city was called "Canton".)

For business travellers, the Cairns hop on the China-bound leg is significantly less attractive than China Southern's existing nonstop four times weekly flights to Guangzhou, since a dead-of-the-night stop en route doesn't make for a good night's sleep.

Watch out for that extra stop if you're booking -- don't get confused by the difference between direct and nonstop flights!

But the addition of more nonstop Guangzhou-Brisbane legs to make that part of the route a daily service is a big bonus for Brisbane business travellers.

David Flynn is attending China Southern's Canton Route press conference in Guangzhou as a guest of China Southern.

David Flynn

David Flynn is the Editor-in-Chief of Executive Traveller and a bit of a travel tragic with a weakness for good coffee, shopping and lychee martinis.