Live flights over Cairns International Airport (CNS)
From 1 to 7 November 2026 the FlyItalyADSB network saw 100 departures and 111 arrivals at Cairns International Airport, 30 movements a day on average. The most frequent connections are Brisbane (BNE), Townsville (TSV) and Melbourne (MEL). The airline seen most often is QantasLink.
Airport data
- IATA code
- CNS
- ICAO code
- YBCS
- City
- Cairns
- Region
- Queensland
- Country
- Australia
- Elevation
- 3 m (10 ft)
- Coordinates
- -16.87892, 145.74948
What you can track here
Every aircraft passing within roughly 80 km of Cairns International Airport that the network receives appears on the FlyItalyADSB live map: airliners on approach and departure, business and general aviation, and — where MLAT reaches — aircraft without full ADS-B. Nothing is filtered out; how much of the area is covered depends on the community's receivers near Cairns.
Seen by the network
1–7 November 2026
Movements per day
Show as a table
| Day | Departures | Arrivals | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mon 2 | 9 | 5 | 14 |
| Tue 3 | 9 | 15 | 24 |
| Wed 4 | 19 | 27 | 46 |
| Thu 5 | 19 | 27 | 46 |
| Fri 6 | 32 | 24 | 56 |
| Sat 7 | 12 | 13 | 25 |
Connections
airline flights both ways, with departure and arrival both seen
- Brisbane BNE 43 flights
- Townsville TSV 22 flights
- Melbourne MEL 20 flights
- Sydney SYD 19 flights
- Darwin DRW 2 flights
- Narita NRT Japan 1 flights
- Osaka KIX Japan 1 flights
- Mackay MKY 1 flights
- Proserpine PPP 1 flights
Airlines
- QantasLinkQLK 43
- Jetstar AirwaysJST 41
- Virgin AustraliaVOZ 30
- Skytrans AirlinesSKP 13
- HNDHND 8
- QantasQFA 8
- Regional ExpressRXA 7
- National Jet ExpressJTE 4
- Alliance AirlinesUTY 4
- Air NiuginiANG 3
Aircraft
- Airbus A320 A320 35
- Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 DH8D 30
- Embraer E190 E190 23
- Boeing 737-800 B738 20
- C208 14
- DH8A 14
- Boeing 737 MAX 8 B38M 11
- B350 7
- Boeing 737-700 B737 7
- SF34 7
How we count: a flight is a departure here when the network first sees it low near the airport (on the ground, or climbing away from it), an arrival when it last sees it low on approach. Where receivers don't reach low altitude the numbers stay below the real traffic. Connections and airlines come only from airline flights.
This data in your app
Every aircraft within 80 km of Cairns International Airport, as JSON, with a free key that also allows commercial use:
curl -H "X-Api-Key: YOUR_KEY" \
https://api.flyitalyadsb.com/v2/lat/-16.87892/lon/145.74948/dist/80Or ask Claude, with the FlyItalyADSB connector: “which aircraft are near Cairns right now?”
Frequently asked questions
How can I see live flights over Cairns International Airport? +
Open the FlyItalyADSB live map centred on Cairns: it shows every aircraft picked up via ADS-B and MLAT within about 80 km of CNS, refreshed every few seconds.
Which airlines fly from Cairns International Airport? +
Among the flights our network saw (1–7 November 2026), the most frequent airlines were QantasLink, Jetstar Airways, Virgin Australia, Skytrans Airlines and HND.
What are the main connections from Cairns International Airport? +
The connections with the most flights seen (1–7 November 2026), both ways: Brisbane (BNE, 43), Townsville (TSV, 22), Melbourne (MEL, 20), Sydney (SYD, 19) and Darwin (DRW, 2). Only flights whose departure and arrival the network both saw are counted.
Does FlyItalyADSB also track military aircraft around Cairns? +
Yes. Thanks to multilateration (MLAT) the network reconstructs the position of aircraft without full ADS-B too, including military and state flights, whenever they are received by feeders in the area. Nothing is filtered out.
What are the codes for Cairns International Airport? +
Cairns International Airport has IATA code CNS and ICAO code YBCS. It lies in Queensland, Australia, at coordinates -16.87892, 145.74948.
Is the flight data free and open? +
Yes. The live map and the Free API plan cost nothing, and the data is published under the open CC BY-SA 4.0 licence; paid API plans for higher volumes help cover the infrastructure costs.
Nearby airports
All airports →Improve coverage over Cairns
Coverage quality depends on the density of receivers. With a Raspberry Pi and an RTL-SDR antenna you can help track flights over Queensland, Australia.