New budget airline startup Bonza has revealed that it plans to start commercial flights within Australia within months.
Last October, the ultra-low-cost domestic airline announced its intention to enter the Aussie market in early 2022, however, early 2022 came and went and Bonza hadn’t launched its flights. Now, the airline has announced that they expect to begin their commercial flights as soon as late September.
“We are now one important step closer to connecting more Australians with convenient low-cost travel options to more destinations for holidays and to visit loved ones,” Bonza Chief Executive Tim Jordan said in a statement.
The airline’s first plane, a large Boeing 737 MAX 8, touched down in Queensland today, which is where the airline’s headquarters are.
“It’s hard to describe the feeling when your first aircraft touches down on Aussie shores – to its new home at Sunshine Coast Airport,” Jordan wrote on LinkedIn about the aircraft’s arrival. “To our team of Bonza legends, and our partners, thank you doesn’t come close to summing up my thoughts on what you’ve all made possible.”
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.
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Bonza flights will be cheap, with one-hour flights costing around $50 while longer flights would cost between $75 and $100.
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