East Air axes scheduled Hamilton Island ops, back to charters

By Andrew Curran.

EXCLUSIVE: East Air has ceased operating scheduled passenger flights between Cairns (CNS) and Hamilton Island (HTI) less that two months after debuting the service. The small Cairns-based operator says it will temporarily pivot back to charter flights.

The service’s demise highlights the financial and operational challenges facing small regional airlines in the region.

East Air’s last scheduled service on the Cairns – Hamilton Island city pair was on December 19, 2025. The flights only started on November 3.

Earlier this month, East Air shut its booking portal down. This week, East Air posted this message on their website.

“We'd like to thank everyone for their overwhelming support as we reintroduced direct flights from Cairns to Hamilton Island,” the message reads.

“After watching the patterns of the bookings and speaking with many of our customers, we have come to realise that the majority of people on this route travel in groups, and value the freedom to plan this part of their journey around their broader holiday plans.”

“As a result, in place of the twice-weekly flights, we have changed our service to now offering personalised flights for groups of six or more.”

Managing director and East Air owner Alan Milne told Aero South Pacific that the airline would offer charter services only during the low demand months with the intention of re-offering scheduled services in the high demand months.

"We believe this is the best strategy to maintain a service between Cairns and Hamilton Island into the future," he said. "We also believe this route is steadily building, so we will match frequency and aircraft size to cater to this growing demand."

Plans to scale up passenger numbers didn't pan out

A former Skytrans managing director, Milne acquired East Air from Townsville Airlines last year. East Air was an established charter operator with a fleet of Cessna propellor aircraft and a Beechcraft 1900D.

Milne had enjoyed some success at Skytrans with new scheduled passenger services, including starting the Cairns – Proserpine (PPP) service, which continues to this day.

In 2024, Skytrans was acquired by European ACMI operator Avia Solutions Group and later rebranded to SmartLynx Australia. Milne subsequently moved on.

Announcing his acquisition of East Air in mid-2025, Milne floated plans to acquire and use mid-life de Havilland Dash-8 aircraft on routes such as Cairns – Hamilton Island, which has remained unserved since the start of Covid-19 but in its heyday supported around 37,000 seats annually.

However, when East Air started its flights to Hamilton Island, its touted thrice weekly round-trips had been trimmed to twice-weekly and the operating aircraft was a 19-passenger 1900D.

Like many new passenger services in Queensland, the East Air flights launched with assistance from the Queensland Government’s Attracting Aviation Investment Fund.

By December, East Air down-sized the operating aircraft size to a Cessna 402.

“Our strategy has always been ‘the right aeroplane for the right route,’” Milne told Aero South Pacific at the time. “QantasLink previously operated a daily 50-seat DHC-8-300 on this city pair and we intend to build the route back to that.”

High operating costs resulted in high air fares

At the time, Aero South Pacific noted that one-way fares across January were starting at AUD515 (USD342) each way, rising to AUD617 (USD409) on some flights. The flight distance between Cairns and Hamilton is about 512 kilometres. The entry fare equated to more than AUD1 (USD0.66) per kilometre flown.

In contrast, a Singapore Airlines first-class one-way flight between Sydney and Singapore next week is selling for AUD5600 (USD3,750). The flight distance is approximately 6,300 kilometres, equating to about AUD0.88 (USD0.59) per kilometre flown.

Milne said East Air’s fares reflected the high operating costs of regional airline travel. “The costs are inversely proportional to the aircraft size, so the sooner we can build the route to larger passenger numbers, the better,” he said.

The axing of the Hamilton Island flights highlights the ongoing difficulties operators face making small regional routes in Australia work. Among other challenges, high operating costs are split across a limited number of seats, resulting in high air fares.

As a result of the axing, there are currently no scheduled passenger flights between Cairns and Hamilton Island.

Article updated on January 18 with input from Alan Milne.

Photo: Aero South Pacific

Contact the writer: andrew@aerosouthpacific.com