$206 Find Cheap Flights from New Zealand to Cairns

This is the cheapest one-way flight price found by a KAYAK user in the last 72 hours by searching for a flight to Cairns departing on 21/11. Fares are subject to change and may not be available on all flights or dates of travel. Click the price to replicate the search for this deal.
1 adult
1 adult, Economy

KAYAK searches hundreds of travel sites at once for deals on flights to Cairns

 
These are the airlines KAYAK users have selected most often from within our search results for flights to Cairns, as well as popular online travel agencies
These are the airlines KAYAK users have selected most often from within our search results for flights to Cairns, as well as popular online travel agencies
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Cheap Flights from New Zealand to Cairns

 
Here are some of the best deals found on KAYAK recently from the most popular airlines for return flights from New Zealand to Cairns that are departing in the next months. While these flights were available on KAYAK in the last 72 hours, prices and availability are subject to change and deals may expire.
Discover the best prices for you by selecting your travel dates on KAYAK.

Recent return flight deals from New Zealand to Cairns

Wed, 3 Sep - Thu, 11 Sep
Jetstar Logo
07:05 - 10:40CHC-CNS
5h 35mdirect
Jetstar Logo
22:55 - 05:50CNS-CHC
4h 55mdirect
$436Jetstar
Find Deal
Fri, 5 Sep - Sun, 14 Sep
Jetstar Logo
07:05 - 10:40CHC-CNS
5h 35mdirect
Jetstar Logo
22:55 - 05:50CNS-CHC
4h 55mdirect
$461Jetstar
Find Deal
Wed, 27 Aug - Wed, 3 Sep
 Logo
06:40 - 13:10AKL-CNS
8h 30m1 stop
 Logo
15:35 - 04:30CNS-AKL
10h 55m1 stop
Sun, 14 Sep - Sun, 21 Sep
 Logo
06:15 - 17:10AKL-CNS
12h 55m1 stop
 Logo
21:00 - 04:30CNS-AKL
29h 30m1 stop
Sat, 13 Sep - Sat, 20 Sep
Virgin Australia Logo
18:00 - 09:40ZQN-CNS
17h 40m1 stop
Virgin Australia Logo
16:55 - 13:45CNS-ZQN
18h 50m1 stop
$781Virgin Australia
Find Deal
Sat, 13 Sep - Sat, 20 Sep
Virgin Australia Logo
18:00 - 11:25ZQN-CNS
19h 25m2 stops
Virgin Australia Logo
11:50 - 13:45CNS-ZQN
23h 55m1 stop
$802Virgin Australia
Find Deal
Sat, 13 Sep - Sat, 20 Sep
Air New Zealand Logo
16:00 - 22:50WLG-CNS
8h 50m1 stop
Air New Zealand Logo
11:55 - 17:10CNS-WLG
27h 15m1 stop
$897Air New Zealand
Find Deal
Sat, 13 Sep - Sat, 20 Sep
Air New Zealand Logo
10:00 - 13:00CHC-CNS
29h 00m2 stops
Air New Zealand Logo
11:55 - 16:45CNS-CHC
26h 50m2 stops
$1,012Air New Zealand
Find Deal
Sun, 14 Sep - Sun, 21 Sep
Emirates Logo
15:40 - 22:50WLG-CNS
9h 10m1 stop
Emirates Logo
18:35 - 13:35CNS-WLG
17h 00m1 stop
$1,159Emirates
Find Deal
Sun, 14 Sep - Sun, 21 Sep
Emirates Logo
15:40 - 22:50WLG-CNS
9h 10m1 stop
Emirates Logo
17:35 - 14:35CNS-WLG
19h 00m2 stops
$1,307Emirates
Find Deal
Booking Insights

KAYAK's insights & trends for flights to Cairns

Get data-powered insights and trends into flights to Cairns to help you find the cheapest flights, the best time to fly and much more.

What is the cheapest flight to Cairns?

These are the best round-trip prices found by users searching on KAYAK in the last 72 hours.

In the last 3 days, the cheapest flight deal to Cairns was found on the route from Christchurch, at $677 return. The most popular connection is from Auckland to Cairns and KAYAK users have found return deals for as low as $584 in the last 3 days.

What is the cheapest month to fly to Cairns?

To calculate monthly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each month over the last year for flights to Cairns, removes the top 0.1% to account for outliers, and then takes the median of all values for each month.

The cheapest month for flights to Cairns is February, where tickets cost $705 on average for return flights. On the other hand, the most expensive months are December and January, where the average cost of tickets from New Zealand is $1,038 and $944 respectively. For one-way flights, the best month to travel is February with an average price of $705.

How far in advance should I book a flight to Cairns?

To calculate weekly average prices, KAYAK takes all prices for each week before departure over the last year for round-trip flights to Cairns, removes the top 0.1% to account for outliers, and then takes the average of all the values for each week.

To get a below average price, you should book around 3 weeks before departure, which saves you about 35% compared to booking last minute. For the absolute cheapest price, our data suggests you should book 6 weeks before departure.

Good to know

Low seasonFebruary
Cheapest flight$206
Best time to beat the crowds (13% less expensive on average)
Most popular time to fly (2% more expensive on average)
Flight from Christchurch to Cairns

FAQs - booking Cairns flights

  • What is the cheapest flight to Cairns?

    In the last 3 days, the cheapest flight deal to Cairns was found on the route from Christchurch, at $677 return. The most popular connection is from Auckland to Cairns and KAYAK users have found return deals for as low as $584 in the last 3 days.

  • How far is Cairns Airport from central Cairns?

    Central Cairns is 4 km away from Cairns Airport.

  • What is the name of Cairns’s airport?

    Cairns is served by Cairns Airport, also commonly referred to as Cairns or Cairns Intl. The airport code is CNS.

  • How much is a flight to Cairns?

    On average, a flight to Cairns costs $429. The cheapest price found on KAYAK in the last 2 weeks cost $184 and departed from Christchurch Airport.

  • What is the cheapest day to fly to Cairns?

    Based on KAYAK data, the cheapest day to fly to Cairns is Wednesday where round-trip tickets can be as cheap as $673. On the other hand, the most expensive day to fly is Sunday, where round-trip prices are $1,000 on average.

  • How does KAYAK find such low prices on flights to Cairns?

    KAYAK is a travel search engine. That means we look across the web to find the best prices we can find for our users. With over 2 billion flight queries processed yearly, we are able to display a variety of prices and options on flights to Cairns.

  • How does KAYAK's flight Price Forecast tool help me choose the right time to buy my flight ticket to Cairns?

    KAYAK’s flight Price Forecast tool uses historical data to determine whether the price for a flight to Cairns is likely to change within 7 days, so travellers know whether to wait or book now.

  • What is the Hacker Fare option on flights to Cairns?

    Hacker Fares allow you to combine one-way tickets in order to save you money over a traditional round-trip ticket. You could then fly to Cairns with an airline and back with another airline.

  • What is KAYAK's "flexible dates" feature and why should I care when looking for a flight to Cairns?

    Sometimes travel dates aren't set in stone. If your preferred travel dates have some wiggle room, flexible dates will show you all the options when flying to Cairns up to 3 days before/after your preferred dates. You can then pick the flights that suit you best.

  • What is the cheapest time of day to fly to Cairns?

    The cheapest time of day to fly to Cairns is generally in the afternoon, when round-trip flights cost $480 on average. The most expensive time of day to fly to Cairns is generally in the morning, which is peak travel time and where the average cost of a ticket is $724.

  • How many direct flights to Cairns are there each week?

    Each week there are around 438 direct flights from within New Zealand to Cairns. The most common day for departures is Thursday, with 16% of flights taking off on this day.

Top tips for finding cheap flights to Cairns

  • Looking for cheap airfare to Cairns? 25% of our users found return tickets to Cairns for the following prices or less: From Christchurch $185
  • Enter your preferred departure airport and travel dates into the search form above to unlock the latest Cairns flight deals.

Reviews of the top airlines flying from New Zealand to Cairns

 
See real verified KAYAK customer reviews for airlines flying to Cairns. Airline scores are aggregated from all reviews left by passengers on KAYAK after flying with an airline from New Zealand to Cairns. KAYAK doesn’t show reviews that are older than 5 years. Learn how KAYAK collects reviews.
Need help choosing which airline to fly with to Cairns? KAYAK airline reviews give an overall score for each airline based on loads of factors, including comfort, boarding, in-flight entertainment and more, to make your decision easier. See airline scores according to verified KAYAK customer reviews.
7.9
Air New ZealandOverall score based on 501 reviews
8.0Comfort
8.2Boarding
7.3Food
8.5Crew
7.4Entertainment
Airline reviews

Not a comfortable trip, the seats are not good, and they look old.

4.0 OkayAnonymous, July 2025AKL - SFO
Read more Air New Zealand reviews

Not a comfortable trip, the seats are not good, and they look old.

Lost my luggage and brought someone else luggage to my airport.

Not entirely positive. It’s frustrating that everything is done through the united app. One of our flight attendants on our trip from San Francisco to MSP continually had trouble hearing people so she flipped her hair into people’s faces

I flew United from San Francisco to Auckland. My connecting flight from Auckland to Christchurch was canceled with no explanation. I was finally told the cancellation was due to fog. Even though it was clear when we landed. I am from San Francisco, I know what fog is! And I didn't see any fog. I was told the next available flight was 7 hours later. Unacceptable, they should have had a flight ready to go as soon as it was deemed safe to take off.

Our original flight was cancelled from SFO to AKL on 6/16/25. So we had to stay overnight at a hotel after a 12-hour layover plus 3-hour delay before the cancellation. Then had to fly to LA and then to AKL the following day losing an entire day of our vacation in NZ, that we can never get back.

Two hours was not enough time to transition from the international to domestic terminal. You have to go through customs, a biological hazard check, gather your luggage, take a bus to the domestic terminal and recheck your luggage. The bus was slow and crowded and the lines to recheck your bags were very long. We missed our connecting flight. Initially, the Air New Zealand officials were not helpful at all in helping to get us on another flight. Told us we would have to buy another ticket for a flight 11 hours later. Found another agent that was more helpful. He helped arrange to get us on standby for another flight three hours later. Had to ride in jump seats next to the flight attendants, but at least we eventually got to out destination.

Full flight. Flight attendants were harried. Otherwise, fine for the typical cramped seating conditions in coach.

Great! Flight was delayed by 30 mins but all was great. Thanks.

The business class upgrade meant a good sleep on the way home after a long week away. Excellent service, great food, and comfortable seat/bed for the journey.

I love the “boarding from the back” idea - it’s so much better than the “Zones” idea that many others use. Also, the inflight wifi was a first for me! Very nice to have on a 13-hour flight!

It was better than I expected. Thought $5 for a small cup of tea was a bit much!

Overall good trip I find seats a bit hard. We were waiting on board for about an hour for 2 passengers with some document issue. This main our arrival late for our pickup person.

15kg allowance is outrageous. Change of time a few days before departure and more than 2 hours of delay in the end. The worse we’ve taken so far in Oceania.

They added the weight of my back to the carryon luggage and charged me NZ$75 for being over 7 kg.

stuck in the aircraft for over three hours due to engineering work, significantly delayed and made a lot of passengers missed the connecting transport, no mention any compensation

Very quiet plane!! One of the quietest planes we have been on.

Jetsatar refused to take my foldable stroller in the plane, despite following all the rules on dimensions and packaging. Similar thing happened on our previous fight. However, at that instance, they offered to check in the stroller. At this fight, the staff was rude, trying to rush us to board the flight. They made excuses that the stroller was not allowed and even offer to leave it behind and ship it back at our own cost. Fortunately, we had someone else attending. Since the flight was about to take off, they left it behind and send it back to us on the next available flight.

Overall, it was good. The only concern was that I couldn't charge my phone because the USB port didn't work after we took off. One of the crew members tried to restart it but never came back to me with an update.

Comfortable seats, boarding was easy and staff were very nice.

Flight was fine but a domestic flight was called by Jetstar international. This meant going through immigration and custom scanning twice. Long queues were experienced which were frustrating. We were using a wheelchair and exit at Perth needed a scissor lift as no air bridge provided. No fast lane at Perth for wheelchair. The staff were helpful but this system is poor.

Travelling to a place near Cairns?

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Everything you need to know for your flight to Cairns

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