Territorians left scrambling as Bonza enters voluntary administration

The airline brought to the NT under the $10m aviation attraction scheme has been placed under voluntary administration, leaving Territorians searching for answers.

Budget airline Bonza has entered voluntary administration, with a sudden mass cancellation of flights across its network on Tuesday leaving thousands Territorians scrambling for answers.

Mary Banfield was furious after being forced to fork out $1500 and miss a chance to say goodbye to friends when her Wednesday Bonza flight from Darwin was cancelled.

“I’m really angry that this has happened with such little notice,” she said, speaking during a mad scramble to pack and get to the airport a day sooner than expected in order to catch last-minute replacement flights.

“As soon as I found out what was happening I looked at other flights, and the prices went up and up and up, and there were less and less and less seats – this is obviously affecting a lot of people.”

Darwin resident Mary Banfield was one of hundreds of Territorians impacted by recent Bonza flight cancellations, and was forced to fork over a thousand dollars to rebook her Queensland flight on Tuesday, April 30. Picture: Zizi Averill

After nine months in the NT, Ms Banfield and her husband are heading to the Gold Coast for a trip up the east coast on their next adventure, and she said the “domino effect” on the rest of their holiday would have been devastating if they had not been able to re-book with another carrier.

“It’s not a nice way to leave Darwin,” she said.

“We were going to see people and say goodbye tonight, now that’s obviously cancelled.”

Ms Banfield said thinking about getting money back from Bonza was a problem for the future.

“It’s really sad, we’re one of the lucky ones as we have the capacity to find more expensive tickets, but some people must be really suffering.”

Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development of Australia Catherine King. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Federal Transport Minister Catherine King said she had spoken to Qantas and Virgin, and both airlines were on standby to help stranded passengers.

The Transport Department also contacted Bonza and stressed its expectation that the company keep passengers informed of their options and their consumer rights.

A hotline was set up by the department for stranded passengers, at 1800 069 244.

Hall Chadwick has been appointed administrators to the airline, after leasing company AIP Capital repossessed its fleet of Boeing 737 Max 8s on Tuesday morning.

In a statement a short time later, Bonza chief executive Tim Jordan apologised to customers and said Bonza was working to find “a way forward”, but did not respond to media calls through the day.

Bonza chief executive Tim Jordan did not front media after releasing a statement early Tuesday.

Chief Minister Eva Lawler said taxpayers would not be out any money from the government bringing the airline to the NT under its $10m aviation attraction scheme.

“I’m disappointed around Bonza, we want to have more airlines coming to the Territory,” she said.

“Our aviation agreement was around money going to the Airport Development Group, so our dollars actually hadn’t gone to Bonza, but I’m hoping Bonza can regroup and continue to provide airfares to the Territory.”

Braitling MLA Josh Burgoyne said Alice Springs residents were frustrated at seeing millions of dollars going to airlines over the decades, only for them to go bust or leave the NT.

“We need to ensure that Alice Springs is a safe place that people want to travel to. If we can increase the amount of people that want to travel to Alice Springs, more airlines will service this route,” Mr Burgoyne said.