Bonza hit with customer complaints on scheduling, cancellations

The budget airline has hit turbulence in its first few months in the skies. But the company says it can recover the trust of angry passengers with more changes on the way.

Bonza Airlines has apologised directly to angry Mackay and Whitsundays customers left stranded after flight cancellations, promising to rejig its routes and frequencies to minimise future disruptions.

“We apologise to Mackay customers who have had their flights cancelled due to recent challenges and we’re working hard to right size our frequency and routes across the network to minimise disruptions to customers’ travel plans,” Bonza chief commercial officer Carly Povey said.

“We know that customers who have flown with us have a Bonza time on-board so our mission is to ensure that we deliver for everyone that books with us.”

The budget carrier has hit some turbulence in its early months of operations and announced on July 13 it would cancel the Mackay-Cairns route as it reassesses how to gain a foothold in the competitive airline market.

But Ms Povey reiterated Bonza’s long-term commitment to Mackay.

Bonza chief commercial officer Carly Povey.

“We will continue to keep open dialogue with Mackay Airport about future opportunities for growth that cater to the leisure tourism market, which is at the heart of what we do at Bonza,” she said.

“It is important to note, we continue to see high demand for the three routes still available to and from Mackay so that is where we’ll focus for now.”

Bonza now runs flights to and from Mackay and the Sunshine Coast and Melbourne.

Flyers took to social media to vent their frustrations following the July 13 announcement.

One common complaint was that Bonza’s schedule prohibits weekend getaways, a point Sarah Ryan suggested had crimped their bookings.

“The problem with Bonza is that their primary target market is short haul domestic travellers, yet they don’t accommodate people who want a weekend away,” Ms Ryan posted on Facebook.

“If they changed their flight schedules to Friday evening departures and Sunday afternoon returns they’d see an increase in bookings.”

Reuben Buchanan said he “totally” agreed with Sarah.

“I had the same problem,” he said.

“Was looking to take the family on a weekend away but all of their flights, regardless of destination, are mid week or Saturday Sunday.”

A Bonza Airline Boeing B737-8 MAX with registration VH-UIK. Picture: Nilsson Jones

Lee Barnett noted the suboptimal scheduling may be due to airport landing costs.

“Airlines buy their take off and landing spots from airports,” he said.

“That’s how airports also make their money and landing fees.

“Weekends are higher pricing for those flights so a new company starting out in the low cost region and short haul would start with a schedule midweek to initiate revenue so they can buy weekend spots on regional areas.

“This is also how Virgin started doing flights back in 2002.

“Let the company grow and you’ll see they will add more routes to their flights on weekends.”

Other travellers have complained about cancellations and disruptions to their travel plans.

“Don’t how long they will be around,” John Watt said.

“First attempt at flying with Bonza(,) cancelled flight up to Sunshine Coast four (hours) before boarding with no options and cancelled the return flight to Melbourne and rescheduled for three day later.

“(Their) excuse, staff issues, won’t be booking any more Bonza flights.”

“Have booked five Bonza flights. And never boarded a single plane. Bye bye Bonza,” wrote Darren Boyes.

Bonza CEO Tim Jordan at Bonza's first Sunshine Coast to Mackay flight on February 14, 2022. Photo: Zoe Devenport

Some travellers also said they had difficulty with Bonza’s Fly Bonza booking app which the company uses instead of a website.

Bonza opened up flights between Mackay and the Sunshine Coast to much fanfare in February and followed with a Cairns route in May.

Ms Povey said the company would rejig its scheduling.

“We also know that in the past couple of months, not everyone has had a good experience with Bonza and we need to stare directly into why that is, specifically when we cancel or delay flights,” she said.

“We will be implementing a range of changes to our schedule from 1 August based on what we have learnt so far and the feedback you’ve given us with regards to route demand.”