Australia's newest budget airline unveils first routes across the country

There’s a new budget airline to rival Jetstar in Australia and it’s just unveiled its first routes around the country.

Last October, ultra-low-cost domestic airline Bonza announced its intention to enter the Aussie market in early 2022 and have certainly lived up to that promise. On the morning of Tuesday, February 15th, the airline announced its first 16 planned destinations, with 25 new routes coming for Aussie travellers.

Bonza described itself as an airline that offers low-cost fares in cities and regional centres across Australia that have been starved of regular, large-scale flights. The fact that Sydney isn’t on the launch list of destinations shows that Bonza is intent on creating routes to lesser-visited spots. It’s hoped that Sydney will soon become a partner with the airline but the airport hasn’t yet offered access to landing spots.

Sunshine Coast and Melbourne did make it on the launch list – the airline will base its main fleet of Boeing 737 Max’s at Sunshine Coast Airport, with Melbourne acting as a secondary hub for Queensland, NSW, and Victoria. Sunshine Coast will have 12 of the first 25 routes, while Melbourne Airport will handle the other eight.

Bonza flights will be cheap, with one-hour flights costing around $50 while longer flights would cost between $75 and $100.

The first flights are still a little way off, though, with the airline hoping to begin its flights in the middle of this year, pending regulatory approval.

In the meantime, Bonza now has an official Instagram account for travellers to keep up-to-date on flight news. There’s also a new app for the airline that has an enticing reason to download: “So get your thumb out, download the @flybonza app to WIN free flights and get notified about when we’re gonna go on sale. Bonza!” the airline wrote on Instagram.