Bonza Airlines unveils first routes across Australia, including fares for as little as $50

Australia’s newest airline Bonza is preparing to take on Jetstar, unveiling its first routes and fares for as little as $50.

Australia’s newest budget airline Bonza is ramping up its launch, unveiling its first routes across the country and fares for as little as $50.

Bonza announced its plans for cheap flights in October last year with CEO Tim Jordan telling news.com.au the airline was about “bringing more choice to Aussies from a leisure perspective”.

In an update today, Bonza announced the first 16 destinations it planned to fly to, with 25 new routes coming for jetsetting Aussies.

Sydney didn’t land a spot on Bonza’s launch list, with the Sunshine Coast and Melbourne instead nabbing the first spots.

The airline will base its fleet of brand new Boeing 737 Maxs at Sunshine Coast Airport in Queensland with Melbourne serving as a secondary hub, focusing on Queensland, NSW and Victoria.

Bonza describes itself as an airline that offers low-cost fares in cities and regional centres across Australia that have been starved of regular, large-scale flights.

Mr Jordan said Bonza fares would be similar to Jetstar, with one hour flights costing around $50 while longer flights would cost around $75 to $100.

The airline hopes to start flying in the middle of this year, pending regulatory approval, with the first Boeing expected to land in Australia at the end of May.

The Sunshine Coast, a popular tourist hotspot with the coastal towns of Noosa and Mooloolaba nearby, will account for 12 of Bonza’s first 25 routes while Melbourne Airport will have eight routes.

Bonza will be operating flights on the east coast.

Mr Jordan, who has worked in the aviation industry for more than 20 years and has been behind some of the world’s most successful budget airlines, said the company wasn’t looking to take business from the already successful and well-established airlines in Australia, including Qantas, Virgin and Jetstar, but was instead gearing up to fill a gap in the market.

“This isn’t about stealing traffic from business carriers. They’re already doing their job very well. We want to stimulate new travel to new destinations. We will absolutely serve and represent the whole country,” he said back in October.

Mr Jordan said he hoped Sydney would soon be part of Bonza’s flying schedule but the airport was yet to offer viable commercial terms and access to landing spots.

Bonza sent out expressions of interest to 45 airports back in October asking them if they’d be interested in welcoming Bonza in 2022.

“Airport costs are an incredibly large part of the cost base (of airlines) and we are hoping that some of these airports, or all, say ‘we would love you to fly here and we will do you some special deals to fly to our place first’,” Mr Jordan said.

“If they do that, we’ll put them at the front of the queue.”

Bonza CEO Tim Jordan.

Bonza is proceeding through the required regulation from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA), Australia’s regulatory body.

Mr Jordan said Bonza planned to offer “sustainable” low prices but admitted the airline would offer some “headline grabbing” fares from time to time.

The airline will get fares low by flying on a lower frequency basis, with Mr Jordan suggesting their 737s could visit regional centres two, three or four times a week.

“Instead of costing $200 to get on an aircraft in a region, it’ll be somewhere between $50 and $100 to get on an aircraft,” he said.

“This won’t be about stunt fares, we’ve all seen $29 and $19 fares, they’re very easy to do but what generally happens in those circumstances is you upset quite a few people because not everybody gets them and people miss out and that isn’t a great way to treat a customer.

“And while I’m sure we’ll have some headline grabbing fares, it’s about sustainable, lower, average fares. We will be offering much lower fares across the country than is currently happening.”

Bonza is hoping to start flying in the middle of this year. Picture: Supplied

Bonza is backed by 777 Partners, a massive private investment firm based in North America with assets under management of more than $US6 billion.

Aviation is one of the company’s business cornerstones and 777 Partners has already successfully launched Flair Airlines, a low-cost carrier based in Canada.

“(777 Partners) saw the opportunity in Australia and Bonza is coming and here to stay for the long term,” Mr Jordan said.

“We have a very big investor behind us and they’re not private equity looking to exit in three or four years.

“They’ve got deep pockets and they are a serious aviation investor.”