Bonza airline to axe five regional Australia routes due to low patronage

Bonza will axe five routes servicing regional Australia due to low patronage months after launching, as the fledgling budget carrier laments a series of bird strikes for hampering its reliability. There was also more encouraging news in an open letter to customers released on Thursday – demand for flights from the Sunshine Coast to Albury and Melbourne’s Avalon airport, as well as between Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport and Port Macquarie, has been so strong that Bonza will add an additional flight each week on these routes. From 1 August Bonza’s network will be cut from 27 routes to 22, when services are discontinued from its Sunshine Coast base to Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Tamworth. The network adjustment means Bonza will no longer service Coffs Harbour – the flight to the Sunshine Coast is now the only service offered from that airport. Bonza – which launched in January – will also cease flights between Cairns and Mackay, and Toowoomba and Whitsunday Coast. Frequencies will be reduced on other routes. Customers booked on affected routes will be issued refunds or offered an alternate flight with Bonza “depending on their scenario”. Carly Povey, Bonza’s CCO, noted that demand for some routes from the Sunshine Coast and from Melbourne’s Tullamarine airport had been so strong that the airline will consider further services in the future. She said the Albury to Sunshine Coast route had been the airline’s “shining star”, with half of all flights in June 100% full. Launching flights out of Sydney airport remains a goal of the airport, but Povey echoed CE Tim Jordan’s comments that access to meaningful slots at the airport meant expansion was not yet tenable. Povey said the decision to consolidate its network had been made “potentially a bit earlier” than planned but a range of misfortunes had meant the airline needed to act to reduce flight cancellations.<br/>