Bonza Review: Flying Australia’s Newest Airline

Australia’s newest low-cost airline Bonza has started flying from its base at Sunshine Coast Airport, and there’s a buzz around town.

Using a small fleet of Boeing 737-8 MAX jets, Bonza will eventually ramp up its network to 27 domestic routes. Most of its destinations will be regional locations served from the airline’s hubs in Sunshine Coast and Melbourne, and the vast majority of the airline’s routes are not currently served by any other airline.

I was intrigued to find out what Bonza’s service would be like, so I booked a ticket on yesterday’s flight from Sunshine Coast to Whitsunday Coast Airport (Proserpine). As you’ll discover in this Bonza review, I was very impressed!

Flight Details

Flight number	AB777
Route	Sunshine Coast (MCY) to Proserpine (PPP)
Aircraft type	Boeing 737-8 MAX
Class of travel	Economy
Seat number	23E
On-time performance	We arrived 5 minutes early
Star rating

The route

A little bit of trivia about the flight number: The IATA code “AB” used to belong to Oneworld member Airberlin, which went bankrupt in 2017. And as Sunshine Coast-Proserpine was Bonza’s inaugural route, the flight number “777” is perhaps a nod to Bonza’s owner, the US-based private equity firm “777 Partners”.

Flight Cost

The base fare from Sunshine Coast to Proserpine was a very reasonable $59 one-way.

As Bonza is a low-cost airline, ancillaries like checked baggage or seat selection cost extra. That said, I found the ancillary fees to be very reasonable. I paid a total of $80.60 for my ticket, including a 15kg checked bag and standard seat selection.

For total transparency, I paid 100% for my own ticket. I did not get a freebie from Bonza, and didn’t even let them know in advance that I was coming to review the flight. I did this because I wanted my experience to be as close as possible to what an everyday traveller would experience.

Airport Experience

Bonza may have only started flying a few weeks ago, but their presence is already very noticeable at Sunshine Coast Airport. There are bright purple billboards around the airport, Bonza signage is already up, and there were four Boeing 737-8 MAX jets parked there in the distinct Bonza livery. (The most recent of these jets, named after a late Bonza executive called Malc, was just delivered last week.)

I spent some time in Maroochydore before taking this flight, and mentioned to some of the locals that I’d be flying on Bonza when asked what I was doing in town. Every single person that I spoke to had not only heard of Bonza, but they seemed genuinely excited about them entering the market! They all said they’d be keen to hear about my experience and most intended to fly with the airline themselves.

This is in such stark contrast to Rex’s foray into Boeing 737 jet operations two years ago. For quite some time, most people had no idea Rex was even operating on routes like Sydney-Melbourne. A huge amount of credit must go to Bonza’s PR and marketing team, who’ve done a great job of getting the message out effectively.

This billboard in the check-in area of Sunshine Coast Airport also explains why so many locals were excited. Bonza will soon increase the number of non-stop destinations available from Maroochydore from 5 to 17 – and at very affordable airfares!

Upon entering the airport to check-in for my flight, the first thing I noticed was a team of friendly Bonza “legends” (this is what the airline calls its staff) with iPads who were ready and waiting to assist passengers with big smiles. I had a lovely chat with a couple of them – one used to be a hairdresser, and the other a public servant – before heading over to the check-in counter to drop off my checked bag.

For some reason, it’s not possible to book Bonza flights on the airline’s website. Instead, you need to do pretty much everything in the Fly Bonza App.

There are a few teething issues with the App. For example, it doesn’t remember your bookings so you need to re-enter your PNR every time you want to view the booking or to check in. The check-in reminder SMS I received (after I’d already checked in, as it happens) perhaps also needs a bit of work…

The Bonza team are aware of these issues and said they were working to improve the App.

I was able to bring up a digital boarding pass on my phone after some fiddling around, but the lovely check-in agent printed me a paper boarding pass anyway.

My travelling companion’s checked luggage was a little bit overweight. They were politely told that this would normally incur an additional fee, but they let it slide as the airline was still brand new and was giving a leeway period.

It didn’t take long to clear security at Sunshine Coast Airport and I headed into the departures area. There are no lounges at Sunshine Coast Airport – and a Bonza ticket wouldn’t get you in anyway as the airline does not have Business Class or a frequent flyer program. But it was a very pleasant place to wait for a little while, with a few shops, a bar, Sumo Salad and a café past security.

The airport bar had a special “Bonza-approved” cocktail on its menu.

Boarding commenced precisely 30 minutes prior to departure, exactly as advertised. Boarding was done in zones, with rows 16-31 invited to board first.

Our Boeing 737 for this flight was “Shazza”.

The Hard Product

Bonza’s Boeing 737-8 MAX aircraft still have that “new plane” smell. Our aircraft was originally due to be delivered to LOT Polish Airlines, and although it has been repainted, the cabin interior was basically the same as that of a LOT 737-8 (which I’ve also previously flown) and even had a LOT logo at the entrance.

Bonza has an all-Economy layout on its Boeing 737s with 31 rows of seats in a typical 3-3 configuration. The overhead lockers were quite large and could easily accommodate everybody’s bags.

The seats are leather Recaro slimline seats with adjustable purple headrests. Each seat had a USB charging outlet, and there were two universal power outlets available to share between each block of three seats.

The seat pitch was around 29-30 inches, but with the slim seat design and pre-reclined seating position, it didn’t feel uncomfortable – even in the middle seat. (I had originally selected 23D, but voluntarily moved to 23E to sit next to my travelling companion.)

There was no in-flight magazine – just a safety card in the literature pocket.

There was no wifi internet on board, but you could connect using your own device to the Bonza streaming service to access the in-flight shopping menu (more on this shortly) and view a very limited amount of in-flight entertainment content. This consisted of some podcasts, games, novels and videos about Bonza.

Other than some TV shows and movies, one obvious thing that was missing was a moving flight map so that you could see the flight progress.

This flight was probably around 80% full. Admittedly, not all of these passengers were paying customers – some were friends or family or staff members who were given a free return trip, and a few people had won a prize from the local radio station. Given the airline just launched a few weeks ago, this makes perfect sense and seems like a good way to generate even more buzz in the local community.

The Soft Product

As this is a budget airline, snacks and drinks are not included in the ticket price. But you can easily purchase food, drinks – and budgie smugglers – by scanning the QR code on the back of your seat and entering your credit card details at the checkout page. (Strangely, it did not seem that you could do this in the Fly Bonza App.)

There was a very extensive menu, with all products sourced from Australian suppliers. The wine, for example, came from a local vineyard in southern Queensland. The food & drinks seemed to be good quality, and I thought the pricing was reasonable. For passengers who don’t have a smartphone, it is also possible to place an order directly with the cabin crew.

In addition to the menu options shown below, there were snacks available such as biscuits, fava beans, banana bread waffles and muffins. Non-alcoholic drink options included tea, coffee, juice, Saxby’s lemonade & cola, water (costing $3.50 for a bottle), and alcohol-free beer.

We ordered a bubbly combo with cheese & crackers, a whisky with soda water and a “snag in a bag” (aka. hotdog), which cost a total of $32.50. It took around 10 minutes for our order to arrive, with the items delivered directly to our seats.

During the flight, a special announcement was made acknowledging that it was the birthday of two children on board and the plane cheered for them.

One thing that was slightly strange was that there was no announcement warning passengers that the food & beverage service would be closing soon. At the top of descent, there was simply an announcement that no more orders would be accepted.

What really made this flight great, though, was the cabin crew. They were all so genuinely enthusiastic and happy to be there! It seemed quite clear to me that the company has a great culture and looks after its people well – and it showed in the service.

All of the flight attendants seemed to be Sunshine Coast locals. Some had come from other airlines, but many had backgrounds that had nothing to do with aviation. (Of course, all the cabin crew had to pass a rigorous 5-week training course before entering service.)

The on-board announcements were full of Aussie slang, and I didn’t hate it. In fact, I really enjoyed the flight!

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.