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Airline start-up Bonza says it plans to launch 25 routes connecting 16 destinations across Australia when it starts operations later this year, with Sydney losing out to Melbourne for a spot on its initial network.
The carrier will be the first new domestic airline in Australia since Tiger Airways was launched 14 years ago and aims to stir up the market with ultra-low-cost fares to regional towns and popular holiday destinations.
Bonza’s full route map includes 25 trips to 16 destinations all across Queensland, NSW and Victoria. Around 80 per cent of the routes are not currently served by any carrier,Credit: Supplied
Chief executive Tim Jordan said Bonza’s fares would be similar to Jetstar’s and around half the price of full-service airlines flying on most of its planned routes. A one-hour flight (Sunshine Coast to Rockhampton or Coffs Harbour) would be about $50 one way on average, while longer flights (Melbourne to Sunshine Coast) would average between $75 and $100 one way.
Bonza, which hopes to start flying around the middle of this year, will reveal on Tuesday it will base its fleet of Boeing 737 Max aircraft at Sunshine Coast Airport and use Melbourne Airport as a second base.
Mr Jordan said that rather than go head to head with Qantas, Jetstar and Virgin on busy routes between capital cities, the airline was focused on flying to new and underserved destinations. “That’s delivering something very different to the market,” he said. “Eighty per cent of the routes are not flown by any other airline at this point. It’s new ground for Australia.”
Avalon Airport, near Geelong, is also part of the planned network along with Albury, Bundaberg, Cairns, Coffs Harbour, Gladstone, Mackay, Mildura, Newcastle, Port Macquarie, Rockhampton, Toowoomba Wellcamp, Townsville and the Whitsunday Coast.
Sunshine Coast, about 90 kilometres south of Brisbane, is the gateway to holiday destinations including Noosa, Maroochydore and Mooloolaba and will account for 12 of Bonza’s first 25 routes with 37 flights per week to destinations in NSW, Queensland and Victoria.
Melbourne Airport will have eight routes and 22 flights per week, according to Bonza’s planned network based on its first five aircraft, which will enter its fleet by October. It intends to fly up to eight aircraft within its first year.
Bonza will not fly to Sydney Airport immediately after other airports offered better commercial terms and better access to landing slots, but that could change, he said.