Virgin Australia is to announce Cairns to Tokyo Haneda using two-class, 170-seat 737 MAX 8s, according to Aeroroutes. While it isn't bookable yet, it is expected to be soon.

When it takes off next year, the 3,638-mile (5,855km) route will be the world's fourth-longest by MAX aircraft. For context, that distance is equivalent to Boston to Barcelona. It comes as QantasLink gets ready to start Darwin-Singapore using the Embraer 190.

What is happening?

Virgin Australia will inaugurate a 1 daily Cairns to Tokyo Haneda service on June 28th. It'll be the only airline on the brand-new airport pair, although it'll compete against a 1 daily Jetstar 787-8 service to Tokyo Narita.

Tourism Tropic North Queensland CEO Mark Olsen said that over 240,000 Japanese tourists visited the area in 2022, the fourth-largest visitor group by the number of nights and spend.

According to Aeroroutes, Virgin's schedule will be as follows, with all times local. Despite the MAX 8 cruising slower than the 787, Virgin's block time will be no more than 15 minutes longer.

• Cairns-Tokyo Haneda: VA77, 13:15-20:00 (7h 45m block time)
• Tokyo Haneda-Cairns: VA78, 21:45-06:15+1 (7h 30m)

It again raises the question of where Jetstar will use its A321LRs internationally. It'd be particularly great if new routes were involved. Its LRs could reach as far as Japan from Cairns but are limited to Southeast Asia from the Gold Coast, Sydney, and Melbourne, although Thailand would likely be out of reach from Melbourne.

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A quick look at Cairns-Tokyo

Cirium schedules from 2004 show no airline has operated between Cairns, the capital of Queensland's tropical Far North, and Haneda. However, Cairns has had nonstops to Tokyo for many years – just to Narita.

In the past 18 years, Cairns-Narita had flights by Qantas/Australian Airlines (until 2008; 767-300ER) and Jetstar (from 2008, initially using the A330-200 and then the 787-8. In 2021, Qantas revealed that it was considering a 4 weekly Cairns-Tokyo service, but that didn't materialize. Virgin will operate it instead but with a much smaller aircraft and at a higher frequency.

Cairns-Tokyo will run 2 daily next summer (winter Down Under), a frequency it has seen before, although not for many years.

Discover more aviation news.

The world's 4th longest MAX route

Looking at the schedules for June 28th-October 26th next year reveals these very long MAX routes, all well over the 3,000 miles (4,828km) considered to be long-haul.

What is the longest MAX flight you've been on? Let us know in the comments.