Bonza Airline Discussion

[Mattg]

Tiger flew MEL-ROK/MKY. Struggled. I recall Tiger flew MEL-MCY also and pulled out.

Those Cairns routes won’t work. Melbourne to Cairns during the dry season should be a given without Tiger in the market.

MCY-PPP/ROK, TSV-ROK some other fizzers.

Strange no OOL. Usually the first airport offering dollars and deals to new airlines. I was guessing it would have been OOL based.

I flew the ROK-CNS milk run on QantasLink last year. There were quite a few passengers who boarded in ROK and disembarked in TSV, or flew MKY-CNS etc. And that was with fares around $300 one-way.

Price these routes at $69 and make them non-stop, and they may well be able to fill 2 flights per week.

 

[Inlander]

I would think a RexJet/Bonza merger may be more ideal for the PE companies that own Bonza and REX, rather than the larger PE rival that is Bain (Virgin) taking over either.

The tricky part however is what to do with the 'older' ex-VA 738 leases.

Yes it would be the most likely pairing, the route networks would fold in together nicely, let alone, common Boeing type aircraft (Excepting the Saabs which will need replacing eventually)

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

I visited their Facebook thanks to your post, and gee, it is so cringy, I want to throw up, let alone fly with them.

I do tend to agree- mind you I followed Scoot before it’s launch and they too had a very similar poor quality website and lacklustre social media presence prior to actual flights flown. Needless to say since launch scoot have invested heavily in both in recent years- no doubt Bonza are saving the media expenditure for a little later.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Apparently Newcastle Airport jumped the gun with the Bonza announcement, posting on their Facebook earlier today about flights to the Sunshine & Whitsunday Coasts. It quickly got taken down. So we can at least expect NTL-MCY/PPP to be announced.

The individuals behind the NTL Facebook page are a little trigger happy with their posts. I remember 4 years ago NTL hyping up a pending new route announcement - which ended up being ADL on Flypelican- and it was an absolute flop of an announcement in the end for reasons history can explain

 

[Inlander]

I flew the ROK-CNS milk run on QantasLink last year. There were quite a few passengers who boarded in ROK and disembarked in TSV, or flew MKY-CNS etc. And that was with fares around $300 one-way.

Price these routes at $69 and make them non-stop, and they may well be able to fill 2 flights per week.

Yep and put them in a brand new 737 Max and your very competitive.

 

[Harrison_133]

I flew the ROK-CNS milk run on QantasLink last year. There were quite a few passengers who boarded in ROK and disembarked in TSV, or flew MKY-CNS etc. And that was with fares around $300 one-way.

Price these routes at $69 and make them non-stop, and they may well be able to fill 2 flights per week.

VA used to fly ROK-TSV a couple of years back. Started during the Virgin Blue days on the E170, then ended up on E190/ATR’s at VA. It hung around for quite a number of years. I think it was even daily on the ATR at one point. After VA left the route, JetGo were there for a while too. So clearly there was a market there that Bonza can tap into.

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

The route announcement was pretty much very predictable, although certainly surprised to see they opted out of BNK, and they didn’t target a few more routes out of CFS and NTL. I do suspect they will announce round 2 of expansion in the route network in the coming months.

 

[AIRwin]

BKK

Bangkok?!

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

Shows I don’t spend enough time on this site anymore.

 

[dajop]

Are they really going to fill

~360 seats per week year round Albury-MCY
~360 seats Mildura-MCY?
Etc? Even with “connections” - noting with the frequencies the onward connection will be pretty small.

(The Australian Aviation article gives a nice route and frequency summary).

Will be fascinating to see if they really can stimulate a market the others have ”missed”, or whether that even exists at all….

With a catchment of 220,000 people within about 90 min drive of ABX with not great access to other airports. Potentially throw in Wagga (90 mins, but has airport, but no LCC) and Shepparton (@ 2hr drive equidistant to MEL), that's a potential population to support the services from Albury of around 350,000 people. I'd be optimistic with clever marketing that ABX could actually work.

More sceptical about MQL, it only has a catchment of ~120,000 within 2 hr radius, but flying anywhere via MEL makes it exxy for most families, so who knows. I suspect this route will be a challenge once the novelty wears off.

 

[Saab34]

The marketing and so on pretty much is a clone of Scoot.

 

[AustraliaPoochie]

AIRwin's pic cut and paste looks so much like a Virgin Aust ad.
Purple colour scheme.
Bonza should have used a light sky blue colour scheme.
Purple is so Virgin, if you look at the Virgin website.
Go to to the Virgin booking website now, and take away reference to bonza in AIRwin's link, and its like a Virgin Aust ad!
As in that movie, (I give it a year)...
If it it does by some miracle start flying.

 

[Daver6]

All the comments about "good lucking filling the plane" assume daily flights I suspect. How many of these routes will be once or maybe twice a week?

 

[Inlander]

All the comments about "good lucking filling the plane" assume daily flights I suspect. How many of these routes will be once or maybe twice a week?

Yep thats the core of it- they are being conservative to start with:
Sunshine Coast
12 routes including Sunshine Coast to:
○ Albury – 2 flights per week
○ Avalon – 3 flights per week
○ Cairns – 5 flights a week
○ Coffs Harbour – 2 flights a week
○ Mackay – 3 flights per week
○ Melbourne – 4 flights per week
○ Mildura – 2 flights per week
○ Newcastle – 4 flights per week
○ Port Macquarie – 2 flights per week
○ Rockhampton – 3 flights per week
○ Townsville – 4 flights per week
○ Whitsunday Coast – 3 flights per week

Melbourne
8 routes including Melbourne to:
○ Bundaberg – 2 flights per week
○ Gladstone – 2 flights per week
○ Mackay – 2 flights per week
○ Mildura – 3 flights per week
○ Port Macquarie – 2 flights per week
○ Rockhampton – 3 flights per week
○ Sunshine Coast – 4 flights per week
○ Toowoomba Wellcamp – 4 flights per week

Whitsunday Coast
3 routes including Whitsunday Coast to:
○ Newcastle – 2 flights per week
○ Sunshine Coast – 3 flights per week
○ Toowoomba Wellcamp – 2 flights per week

Rockhampton

4 routes including Rockhampton to:
○ Cairns – 2 flights per week
○ Melbourne – 3 flights per week
○ Sunshine Coast – 3 flights per week
○ Townsville – 3 flights per week

Mackay
3 routes including Mackay to:
○ Cairns – 2 flights per week
○ Melbourne – 2 flights per week
○ Sunshine Coast – 3 flights per week

Cairns
3 routes including Cairns to:
○ Mackay – 2 flights per week
○ Rockhampton – 2 flights per week
○ Sunshine Coast – 5 flights per week

Toowoomba Wellcamp
3 routes including Toowoomba Wellcamp to:
○ Melbourne – 4 flights per week
○ Townsville – 2 flights per week
○ Whitsunday Coast – 2 flights per week

Townsville
3 routes including Townsville to:
○ Rockhampton – 3 flights per week
○ Sunshine Coast – 4 flights per week
○ Toowoomba Wellcamp – 2 flights per week

Newcastle
2 routes including Newcastle to:
○ Sunshine Coast – 4 flights per week
○ Whitsunday Coast – 2 flights per week

Port Macquarie
2 routes including Port Macquarie to:
○ Melbourne – 2 flights per week
○ Sunshine Coast – 2 flights per week

Gladstone
● 1 route of Gladstone to Melbourne
● 2 flights per week

Bundaberg
● 1 route Bundaberg to Melbourne
● 2 flights per week
● 100% of routes are new for Australian travellers
● 100% not currently served by a low-cost carrier

Coffs Harbour
● 1 route Coffs Harbour to Sunshine Coast
● 2 flights per week
● 100% of routes are new for Australian travellers
● 100% not currently served by a low-cost carrier

Albury
● 1 route Albury to Sunshine Coast
● 2 flights per week
● 100% of routes are new for Australian travellers
● 100% not currently served by a low-cost carrier

Mildura
● 2 routes including Mildura to:
○ Melbourne – 3 flights per week
○ Sunshine Coast – 2 flights per week
● 5 flights per week

 

[Cool Cat Phil]

The marketing and so on pretty much is a clone of Scoot.

I agree an absolute shoe string budget to start off with, until the cash starts coming in from ticket sales. They will likely do a Ryanair and create news when they need free publicity- not that established airlines don’t already do this.

 

[gwilli1]

A few airports from my understanding , ABX & PQQ , immediately come to mind , would struggle operating a MAX, so would be interesting to see how they overcome that . VA used the E170/E190 out of these ports, which i thought was the largest a/c both ports could operate for RPT services.

 

[Harrison_133]

All the comments about "good lucking filling the plane" assume daily flights I suspect. How many of these routes will be once or maybe twice a week?

None of their routes have daily operation. I see potential for quite a few of these routes (MCY-NTL/CNS/TSV for example). Others are complete head scratchers (MCY-CFS/PQQ/MQL). Even at twice a week, 186 seats is a lot to fill on each flight for relatively small untested markets.

I'd be optimistic with clever marketing that ABX could actually work.

I’m similarly optimistic about ABX. JetGo seemed to find a niche with their flights to BNE & OOL, and with the population of Albury & surrounds I think it could be a good destination for them.

More sceptical about MQL,

Agreed. MEL-MQL might work as a low-cost alternative against QF & ZL. Prices aren’t cheap and there must be room there for a third operator. VA continued to fly a daily 737-700/800 to Mildura right up until COVID hit, rather than discontinuing the service when the E190’s were retired. MQL-MCY I’m very sceptical about. I think a service to Queensland could work, but BNE or OOL seem more obvious first choices.

 

[dajop]

Others are complete head scratchers (MCY-CFS/PQQ/MQL). Even at twice a week, 186 seats is a lot to fill on each flight for relatively small untested markets.

I'd say MCY-CFS/PQQ is even more difficult to understand than MCY/MQL. Yes they have reasonable populations, but at least somewhere like MQL is a longish drive from the nearest coast (>4 hrs to the beaches of Adelaide), whilst PQQ & CFS aren't actually starved of beaches,

 

[Harrison_133]

Just noticed something interesting on their app under the routes section. The destinations they announced today are only in QLD, NSW & VIC yet Tasmania is listed but has no destinations appear. The other states they are not flying to aren’t listed at all. Maybe a glitch, or could HBA or LST be added soon?

 

[eastwest101]

All the comments about "good lucking filling the plane" assume daily flights I suspect. How many of these routes will be once or maybe twice a week?

Yep - not a lot of frequency to start with - a lot of 2 or 3 flights per week which is fine for leisure and visiting family and freinds, thats obviously the market they are pitched at so good luck to them. Not going to be very useful for business travel. I still don't get why they haven't looked at Tasmania at all, thats a great opportunity, I can see why they may not want to go head-to-head with flights from Tasmania to MEL and SYD but other options might have been worth a look, even just a summer schedule, and similarly a winter schedule with more CNS and DRW might have made sense? OOL is also another curious omission, I assume its only because the market for OOL is already so competitive that Bonza just didn't want to be there?