Budget airline Bonza slashes routes to protect ‘long-term success’

The airline has penned an open letter to customers outlining route changes that also aim to cut down on cancellations.

Budget airline Bonza is scrapping five routes and reducing the frequency of others in a bid to shore-up the company’s “long-term success” and “reduce the likelihood of cancellations”.

In an open letter to customers, posted to its social media channels on Thursday, the Sunshine Coast headquartered carrier announced the routes being dumped were Sunshine Coast to Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie, and Tamworth as well as Cairns to Mackay, and Toowoomba Wellcamp to Whitsunday Coast.

Other routes won’t operate as often, but top-performing routes Sunshine Coast to Albury, Sunshine Coast to Melbourne (Avalon), and Melbourne to Port Macquarie will all get an additional run per week.

The new route map attached to the bottom of the Bonza open letter sent out on Thursday, applicable from August 1.

Bonza chief commercial officer Carly Povey said there hadn’t been sustainable demand for the five cancelled routes.

“Twenty-two routes remain, and where there is very strong demand we’re also starting to add in additional flights which is very positive this early on in Bonza’s journey,” Ms Povey said.

Those booked on cancelled routes from August 1, when the changes kick in, to October 28 will be contacted and given full refunds, for which the airline has apologised.

“In order for us to earn your trust, as we know that we’re at the start of that journey, we have decided to take a step back to allow our services to become more reliable,” Ms Povey wrote in the letter.

Bonza has plans for growth.

“You could say, we’re taking a step back to allow us to take a leap forward.”

She says by stabilising reliability, the carrier can then move forward with its “growth plans” like sales from late October 2023 to April 2024 (including Christmas and Easter peak periods), establishing a third base and securing new aircraft.

Bonza has only been operating since January 31 and was founded by former Virgin Blue executive Tim Jordan.