Every year we encourage travellers to either stay in Port Douglas until the day after, or go to Cairns the day before, this annual event. We can provide limited services only during the closure.
The annual Cairns Ironman road closure between Cairns Airport and Port Douglas is with us again. Uniquely sponsored by Cairns Airport the Cairns Ironman closes the Captain Cook Highway for 12 hours on 14 June 2026 while planes continue to land as usual at Cairns Airport.
We’re not sure why Cairns Airport sponsors this race AND also doesn’t tell any of its thousands of customers about the race before hand. Instead the duty to try and inform visitors to our region falls to shuttle transfer services like CairnsAirportShuttle.net. We appreciate this unique situation raises eyebrows amongst travellers to our region expecting to transit directly to their holiday in Port Douglas, and only becoming aware of the closure when going to book transfers 😉
Our travel options on Sunday 14 June 2026 can be booked here and offer:
- Departing Port Douglas:
03:45am (Direct to Cairns Airport 1.15 hours) and
10:00am (Inland via Kuranda 2.5 hours approx) - Departing Cairns Airport:
1:00pm (Via Kuranda 2.5 hours approx) and
5:30pm (Direct to Port Douglas 1.15 hour approx:) - The primary purpose of this post is to encourage anyone travelling on 14 June 2026 to ideally avoid travel on the day and make arrangements to minimise the impact of the road closure, and maximise your holiday time 🌴😎
