Discount airline Bonza’s local domestic flights are cancelled, and its planes are said to have been repossessed.
Most of Bonza’s flights were flagged by airports as cancelled on Tuesday morning, and one aviation source said the airline’s fleet of Boeing 737-MAX 8 planes had been repossessed by creditors. Bonza was contacted for comment.
The planes were initially bought by Miami-based private equity company 777 Partners, the US parent of Bonza, during COVID-19 and designated to the leisure carrier on long-term leases. But earlier this month, 777 Partners’ creditors created a new vehicle to take control of 30 Max-8 aircraft linked to 777 Partners.
The airline strenuously denied
reports that first appeared in The Australian Financial Review that KordaMentha had been appointed to run the ruler over Bonza’s finances. A spokeswoman told the
Financial Review at the time that 777 Partners would continue to bankroll the airline despite the change of ownership for its fleet.
Bonza is the brainchild of chief executive Tim Jordan and was designed to take leisure travellers to destinations not served by the major airlines. It flies to unconventional places such as Rockhampton, Mildura and Port Macquarie.