Bonza has gone into voluntary administration, leading to Bonza’s fleet of five Boeing 737 Max 8’s being repossessed.
👉 Background: Bonza is the budget, regional airline that launched in January last year - it was focused on flying unique routes (think: Toowoomba, Tamworth and Townsville) and largely catered to regional Australia travellers.
👉 What happened: Over the past few months, Bonza had been cutting back routes. And now, less than 18 months after hitting the runway, Bonza has gone into voluntary administration, leading to Bonza’s fleet of five Boeing 737 Max 8’s being repossessed.
👉 What else: Earlier this week, Bonza cancelled a heap of flights, which left some very angry customers stranded at the airport. The administrators appointed will look at whether Bonza can return to operating, or if it needs to be shut down all together.
💡 Identifying an underserved market isn’t enough to succeed - if the numbers don’t add up.
💡Budget carriers in Europe and the US have worked quite successfully. But they also have 30 cities with populations over 1 million. Whereas Australia has only 4 cities with populations over 1 million and has significantly lower population density.
💡So while regional Australia is underserved, it hasn’t been financially viable for almost anyone. Not Ozjet, not Impulse Airlines and not even Tiger Airways.
Sign up for Flux and join 100,000 members of the Flux family
