Budget airline Bonza reveals plan to open headquarters in Qld or Northern NSW

Where a new budget airline will set up is being hotly contested with Queensland or northern NSW in the running.

A new low-cost carrier called Bonza is being planned for takeoff in Australia by mid-2022.

A new budget airline aiming to be flying by mid-2022 plans to sell “budgie smugglers” on board and base itself in a regional centre, preferably with the help of a Virgin-style sweetener.

Bonza CEO Tim Jordan said southeast Queensland and northern NSW were the leading contenders for the airline’s headquarters.

Speaking to CAPA Centre for Aviation executive chairman Peter Harbison on Wednesday, Mr Jordan said Bonza would be a significant employer.

“We are currently interacting with the NSW and Queensland governments,” Mr Jordan said.

“That head office will be plus or minus about 100 roles, plus 50 team members for each aircraft.”

Last year, the Queensland government paid $200m in the form of cash and tax incentives to keep Virgin Australia based in Brisbane, along with the bulk of the airline’s 6000-strong workforce.

Neither the Queensland Premier, Deputy Premier or Treasurer had heard from Bonza on Wednesday, but the owner of Toowoomba’s Wellcamp Airport, John Wagner, indicated it would be keen to talk to the US-backed operator.

If Bonza does get the green light from regulators, it would be the first Australian airline to operate the Boeing 737 MAX 8, which was the subject of a global grounding order in 2019 following two fatal crashes.

Virgin Australia has 25 of the 737 MAX 10s on order, with the first delivery due in 2023, and Qantas has short-listed the 737 MAX family for its domestic fleet renewal.

Mr Jordan said the brand new aircraft would be configured with 186 seats, making it one of the largest operating in the domestic market. He denied the aircraft would be too big for the regional centres Bonza aimed to serve.

“We will be offering some service from Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane assuming we can get airport arrangements … but the intention is we believe there are some new markets that are possibly unserviced from those cities, and with the right fares we could do some market stimulation and operate on a low-frequency basis,” Mr Jordan said.

Like other low-cost carriers, Bonza would rely on ancillary charges for things such as luggage, seat selection and food and drink to boost its bottom line.

To that end, Mr Jordan said passengers could expect some surprises on board, in terms of the in-flight offerings.

“We might see some Bonza budgie smugglers make an appearance on the aircraft. There may be a few quirky items that pop up in our in-flight merchandise. We’ll have a good cultural offering,” he said.

He insisted Bonza was not seeking to steal market share from any of the existing carriers, but rather planned to appeal to people who rarely bought airline tickets.

“There’s a lot of people that are not getting on aircraft as frequently as they would if fares were cheaper,” Mr Jordan said.

“It’s not a case of taking someone else’s market and we will be doing things differently in terms of our route network.

More than half of the routes that we’ve identified are not currently operated by any carrier so we’re not going to be going toe to toe for the same market segment as existing carriers, and I think that is the recipe for our success.”