Six months in, Bonza cuts routes while it waits for more planes
Less than six months after it began operating, Bonza says it will cut five routes from its schedule while it waits for new planes to arrive after they finish operating in the northern hemisphere summer later this year.
The low-cost carrier, which is backed by Miami’s 777 Partners, began flying at the end of January from bases in Melbourne and the Sunshine Coast. It initially serviced regional centres including Gladstone, Rockhampton, Port Macquarie, Mildura, Coffs Harbour and Newcastle.
The airline’s chief executive, Tim Jordan, said Bonza would modify its network to better reflect customer demand. The carrier is scrapping flights from the Sunshine Coast to Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Tamworth, as well as the Cairns to Mackay and Toowoomba to the Whitsundays routes.
The changes were “the first restructure of our initial network after spending a number of months learning where the demand is, where the demand isn’t,” Mr Jordan said. “And we’re trying to introduce some more flexibility into our operations, so we can better recover when we do have operational issues – whether they’re self-inflicted, or caused by a wildlife strike.”
As part of the changes, some routes will also be flown less frequently.
Bonza CEO Tim Jordan hopes to stimulate untapped demand for air travel in underserved leisure destinations Lindsay Moller
He said the airline would wait to get more planes until after the northern hemisphere summer, where its private equity owners lease planes to other carriers. “The northern hemisphere summer is haymaking season for airlines,” Mr Jordan added.
The Australian Financial Review first reported in May that two Bonza-branded planes were flying in Europe for the Warsaw-based charter airline Enter Air. Those
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