Bonza borrow plane from Nauru Airlines after lightning strike

A Nauru Airlines plane is being used for some Bonza flights after a lightning strike at a regional airport took one of the budget airline’s fleet out of action.

Bonza landed its first flight at Avalon in February, 2023, making it the first new domestic airline to land in Victoria in 16 years. Picture: Alex Coppel

Customers expecting to board a Bonza flight in the near future may be flying on-board another airline’s plane instead, with a lightning strike temporarily taking out one of the new Australian airline’s fleet.

Bonza has confirmed a Nauru Airlines plane will be used temporarily after a weather event at a Victorian airport on Friday.

Bonza CEO Tim Jordan said the plane was chartered after a lightning strike incident at the weekend caused unscheduled maintenance on a Bonza plane.

The storm damage happened just days after Bonza’s November 21 Rockhampton to Sunshine Coast flight made headlines after hitting severe and unexpected turbulence.

“As we’ve recently had an aircraft unavailable due to unscheduled maintenance following a lightning strike over the weekend, we’ve chartered a Boeing 737-700 from our mates at Nauru Airlines, who are Brisbane-based, so that we can get customers to their destinations,” Mr Jordan said.

“While the flights won’t be as purple as our customers have rightly come to expect, this is a temporary measure so that we can minimise disruption to as many customers as possible.”

A Nauru Airlines plane pictured at Sunshine Coast Airport on November 27.

The strike occurred at the Avalon Airport on Friday, November 24, impacting flight AB571, which had arrived in Avalon from the Sunshine Coast.

No customers were affected.

It comes after unexpected turbulence affected a Bonza flight between Rockhampton and the Sunshine Coast which left three crew members in hospital.

All patients were later released from hospital.

An Australian Transport Safety Bureau spokesperson said after gathering further information into the November 21 incident, it decided not to conduct an investigation.

“Reported injuries were classified as minor and as the turbulence was not forecast, it was deemed unlikely an investigation would identify any new safety issues for action to be taken,” they said.

The budget airline completed its first flight in January from the Sunshine Coast to the Whitsundays.