Bonza Airline Discussion

[elanshin]

Have you noticed how long flair is been goin? I think it's fair to say 777 partners have a lot of cash to burn. that miami money.

I doubt lots of investment firms in the US has loads of spare cash to burn on risky investments atm. Investment space has had lots of contraction and consolidation in the last 12 nonths. (see huge tech layoffs).

 

[Saab34]

Flair has heavy debt and its Management acknowledged its balance sheet isn’t great. It’s clear they have been without a financial pump for a while, as when those aircraft got repossessed, 777 stepped in overnight and paid them. Certainly no assistance prior to that even though many default notices got issued.

Tiger in its first year, also with 4 aircraft, burnt $50m plus $10m in startup costs. I don’t see why this is any different.

 

[Harrison_133]

Ouch... 19.4% cancellation rate for December.

Reporting Airlines	Sectors Scheduled	Arrivals On Time %	Departures On Time %	Cancellations %
Bonza	701	55.0	52.6	19.4

 

[Albert Hoffman]

Flair has heavy debt and its Management acknowledged its balance sheet isn’t great

So how after 3 years of massive losses Flair still alive?

 

[Saab34]

So how after 3 years of massive losses Flair still alive?

They will probably attempt to flog it off. Closing it will cause issues for 777 including loans outstanding to them and any aircraft leases tied to itself.

Canada needs some consolidation, they should really just merge with Lynx

They will do the same with Bonza, ie attempt to sell it, they already put a valuation on it when they spoke to the media last year.

 

[Saab34]

All routes $49.

Good news for those Swifty fans trying to get to Melbourne next month without taking out a mortgage to buy a fare

 

[justinbrett]

All routes $49.

Good news for those Swifty fans trying to get to Melbourne next month without taking out a mortgage to buy a fare

Please hurry up and purchase so Bonza gets enough money to refund me (approaching 60 days at this point)

 

[henrus]

Good news for those Swifty fans trying to get to Melbourne next month without taking out a mortgage to buy a fare

Hmm not quite. I looked at MCY to MEL on the 15th of Feb and prices are $149. Sure enough in the T&Cs of the $49 promo it says no all flights and includes blackout dates/routes although it doesn't explain in detail what these are.

 

[Harrison_133]

Schedule has also been extended through to the end of October.

Temporary frequency reductions on some routes, including MEL-MQL down to 1x weekly and OOL-PPP 2x weekly.

OOL-BDB/GLT launch has been pushed back a further week, and are unavailable past mid-September.

TSV-ROK service completely removed from the end of March.

 

[Saab34]

Hmm not quite. I looked at MCY to MEL on the 15th of Feb and prices are $149. Sure enough in the T&Cs of the $49 promo it says no all flights and includes blackout dates/routes although it doesn't explain in detail what these are.

Had to be quick. We were going to book that exact flight yesterday which was $99 but got it this morning for $49. First AB flight for us.

Fares into Melbourne from the SEQ in that part of the week are crazy expensive. We got caught out with Swift, took a bit of research to work out why on earth fares and flights were hard to come by in that week.

Schedule has also been extended through to the end of October.

Temporary frequency reductions on some routes, including MEL-MQL down to 1x weekly and OOL-PPP 2x weekly.

OOL-BDB/GLT launch has been pushed back a further week, and are unavailable past mid-September.

TSV-ROK service completely removed from the end of March.

Also noticed MCY-PPP 1 weekly.

I assume they will need to start rotating the fleet in/out of heavy maintenance in the not too far future.

They still have Flair seat maps loaded for the rest of the year. Remains to be seen on the plan after March 20 ish when the Flair deal ends. No Bonza painted aircraft sighted in Seattle.

 

[OnePenguin]

Booked return MEL to ASP (Alice Springs) over the Victorian Labour Day weekend in March.
$98 return seems crazy cheap, given Google Flights is only listing Qantas for like $900.
Interested to see how this goes, that 20% cancellation rate is concerning.

 

[Saab34]

I have been watching performance as I have a first flight with them soon. I chose a day they have the spare aircraft not occupied.

Needless to say, the last few weeks, they have been fairly good, they should be top of the board in regards to numbers this month.

The Flair aircraft have very good performance also.

I don’t believe they have had any cancellations this month outside of the cyclones.

When the aircraft are not broken, it seems to run well. This is the plus factor of avoiding the major choked airports at play. Not joining long winded queues for the approach, just straight in number 1.

 

[dajop]

One thought I had, wonder if they are diluting some markets in offering dual SEQ destinations (eg. from MQL and ABX).

Out of ABX (or MQL) there are probably three distinct market segments - those travelling to OOL, those travelling to MCY, and then those who are agnostic between OOL and MCY - but want a cheap flight to the beach. If this third segment is largest, there would surely be some dilution going on.

 

[travelislife]

Booked return MEL to ASP (Alice Springs) over the Victorian Labour Day weekend in March.
$98 return seems crazy cheap, given Google Flights is only listing Qantas for like $900.
Interested to see how this goes, that 20% cancellation rate is concerning.

It's a stupid sale. I can't see how they have done this commercially. They didn't need to go that cheap. You probably still would have bought at $200 return? So they have done themselves out of revenue.

 

[Albert Hoffman]

It's what LCC's have been doing for decades, offer a few seats at super bargain level, raise awareness, get the ancillaries, then sell the rest of the flight for a higher price.

 

[Saab34]

Back in the day, Tiger ran those $9.95 fares, we flew to Alice for $20 return plus Darwin. They also ran those ‘taxes only’ sales.

Jetstar had those 5c fares, I recall we flew Avalon to Sydney for a day trip. Think they even did a 1c sale also.

No doubt Bonza is trying to drum up some business here.

 

[justinbrett]

Booked return MEL to ASP (Alice Springs) over the Victorian Labour Day weekend in March.
$98 return seems crazy cheap, given Google Flights is only listing Qantas for like $900.
Interested to see how this goes, that 20% cancellation rate is concerning.

It's a stupid sale. I can't see how they have done this commercially. They didn't need to go that cheap. You probably still would have bought at $200 return? So they have done themselves out of revenue.

They need cashflow. This is cheaper than the 20% interest or whatever it is they get from 777.

Still waiting for my refund from early December...

 

[travelislife]

They need cashflow. This is cheaper than the 20% interest or whatever it is they get from 777.

Still waiting for my refund from early December...

Yea I get that...but they could have got more cashflow than selling $49 fares...or maybe not

 

[justinbrett]

Yea I get that...but they could have got more cashflow than selling $49 fares...or maybe not

I guess there's less to refund when they cancel the flight.

Right now I think any sane person would pay at least double Bonza's fares to fly anyone else.

 

[flydoc]

I guess there's less to refund when they cancel the flight.

Right now I think any sane person would pay at least double Bonza's fares to fly anyone else.

Well we are talking at least 5-6x more $ to fly with someone else ex-ASP, so it’s understandable why some are choosing AB. And FWIW I don’t think there’s been a single cancellation on the MEL <-> ASP route in the 7 weeks it’s operated so far which is in their favour. Runs only twice weekly, granted, but a better operating average than many other AB routes during that period.