Bonza Airline Discussion

[Harrison_133]

A few tidbits from an article about the Gold Coast cuts in the ABC today:

The airline said this was strictly due to a lack of demand.
She said fewer services between Gold Coast and Melbourne would "right size" the supply and demand on the route.

Once a week is "right sizing" the Gold Coast to Melbourne route? Surely not...

The airline said any customer affected by the changing services would be moved to an alternative flight, or receive a credit for the value of their ticket.

A full refund would also be available.

Reading some posts on the 'Scum of the Air' Facebook page mentioned above, it seems some people who are affected by the days of operation changes aren't actually being given a refund – just a Bonza travel credit.

One poster even had their Gold Coast-Rockhampton flight switched to a Mackay-Sunshine Coast.

The airline confirmed it was adding another flight between the Sunshine Coast and Melbourne, bringing it up to five services a week.

This had been planned well in advance of the current issues and came at the expense of a weekly flight each on the MCY-MKY & MCY-AVV routes.

The spokeswoman said more planes would join its four-aircraft fleet "imminently".

They've been imminent since November...

Source: Bonza confirms changes to Queensland flight schedules but denies reports of engaging financial advisory firm

 

[Saab34]

Tick tock

 

[ThatMrBlake]

Courier mail now picking up on the Bonza bus.

Bonza shocker: Bizarre flight change leaves passenger 150km from hotel — Courier Mail

A Gold Coast traveller has been left $700 out of pocket after Bonza changed its arrival airport to one more than 150km from his planned destination just days before the scheduled departure.

apple.news

 

[Blackadder]

Compass Mark I & II ,etc coming up.

 

[eastwest101]

IMHO Good idea. Very poor execution. Routes like MEL-BDB, ABX-MCY, and even MQL-MCY (before they added MQL-OOL) seemed to be doing well, but two or three strong routes does not make a strong airline

I agree with your opinion but the execution was too late to steal recently laid off VA JQ & QF staff, could have secured leased aircraft at lower rates, stuck to one or two bases, a web site from day 1. Good idea ruined by poor execution.

Like Tiger, now their reputation is in the toilet they have burnt all the goodwill of opening up new markets so will struggle to get any forward bookings.

 

[lovestotravel]

Was always going to fail

 

[Saab34]

Agree the reputation is stuffed. Not helpful when your target passenger resides in small communities, you can’t get these people offside as they are key to making these marginal routes even remotely work.

No idea where this heads next. Talks about trying to find a buyer. I struggle to see how one could successfully market this to someone. Didn’t Singapore sell Tiger to Virgin for $1?

 

[Harrison_133]

The Flair aircraft parked in MCY finally flew today, but interestingly under a Flair flight number.

 

[ThatMrBlake]

The Flair aircraft parked in MCY finally flew today, but interestingly under a Flair flight number.

Rumour on another forum is the Canadians are back in town to take their plane home.

 

[Ansett Nostalgic]

Why buy this piece of rubbish when you can start a new airline without all the baggage of the embarassing fiasco Bonza has become?

A real shame because Albury-Maroochydore and Maroochydore-Mackay were, as others said, examples of successful routes. They tried to expand too fast without the planes, staff, or goodwill to sustain it. Hopefully someone else will try taking over these routes.

 

[FruitySnack]

Rumour on another forum is the Canadians are back in town to take their plane home.

Flight is just to prevent additional maintenance from aircraft being in storage for a certain period of time. Aircraft not going anywhere, for now at least.

 

[Saab34]

I don’t think Aussie crews would be allowed to operate the aircraft, needs to be Flair crews?

 

[N860CR]

A real shame because Albury-Maroochydore and Maroochydore-Mackay were, as others said, examples of successful routes. They tried to expand too fast without the planes, staff, or goodwill to sustain it. Hopefully someone else will try taking over these routes.

If they’re viable routes, they’ll be picked up by one of our real airlines. I suspect much of their “success” was selling a product well below cost.

 

[tcasfail]

I don’t think Aussie crews would be allowed to operate the aircraft, needs to be Flair crews?

Nope, had to send a flair crew over…
Looks like it should be flying by early next month

 

[MooTime]

If they’re viable routes, they’ll be picked up by one of our real airlines. I suspect much of their “success” was selling a product well below cost.

I agree, sell cheap enough tickets and ppl will fly for the sake of it, especially in regional communities where they haven't had an operator flying previously.

'real' Airlines won't bother cos they can't or at least won't sell tickets at these crazy prices for long, then flying pax will dry up.

 

[tcasfail]

Looks like this mornings flying is all cancelled

 

[flyingfan]

Looks like this mornings flying is all cancelled

Not looking good at all… looked at a few Qld airports and indeed most or all their services are cancelled

 

[henrus]

Looks like this mornings flying is all cancelled

Maybe I'm looking into this a bit too much but that isn't a good sign.

 

[henrus]

Ok I get the impression they may be done. It seems to no longer be possible to book any new flights (even stuff months in advance with cheap prices are now erroring out and showing as sold out) add to this that all flights this morning are cancelled this isn’t a great sign.

 

[Saab34]

Either
A) VA
B) fuel supplier cut them off
C) all aircraft repossessed

Either way is over