Bonza co-founder Tim Jordan had a bold dream for regional leisure travellers and connecting some of Australia’s most far-flung places when he started pitching his airline to investors in 2017.

Jordan’s business model, sighted by AFR Weekend, was predicated on flying 72-seat planes (twin-engine turboprops), 83 per cent full, between townships left behind by the Qantas and Virgin duopoly. It relied on scaling up its fleet quickly and extracting about $50 per passenger in income from booze, snacks and baggage.