Will be interesting to see how much debt built up when it moves to Admin.
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You called it!
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What a shame, I flew with them twice and my parents also flew with them once with no problem. My flights were like 70% full. I was planning on flying again with them to the gold coast but held off because I was waiting for there problems to settle down. What a loss to regional communities that offered affordable air travel. I guess I will be driving more now, as I used Bonza to avoid the capital cities
Itâs another bitter blow for regional areas of NSW, VIC and QLD, coming after numerous natural disasters and bank branch closures.
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This could just be the first domino of the whole 777 group (2nd if you consider the sister airline in Canada was having similar issues with planes returning from Australia later than anticipated), watch this space if youâre also an Everton or Melbourne Victory fan amongst others I suspect.
Itâs a shame that Bonza has gone but it does reinforce that this country cannot sustain multiple domestic airlines.
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Rex showed that thereâs room if you are smart about it, and I think is more sustainable - flights from regional to hubs, rather than regional to regional, especially being able to use them to feed their metro to metro flights.
Bonza not going in/out of Sydney probably killed them, but they didnât help themselves with their poor route choices and tickets only being sold through their app. I find flights entirely using Google Flights or something like Skyscanner, Iâm not going to download and run your app just to see if you give me an alternative.
I think it makes more sense for Virgin to have their current market position, âLiteâ fares that can be close to Jetstar, while being able to feel premium if you pay a bit more. Virgin would end up positioned too close to Qantas if they wanted to create space for Tiger.
I think a reality right now, which hurt Bonza a lot, is simply the crunch on aircraft availability - thereâs simply too much demand and not enough supply, so the model of efficiently running new aircraft is very difficult to pull off now.
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Rex is loss making (during the most profitable era in aviation history) and will likely be next to collapse unless they can come up some miracle recovery plan fairly soon.
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Interesting - I hadnât looked into Rexâs financials, as they seem to have a good strategy in place. A quick Google suggests they are shifting in the right direction now, so Bonza disappearing will help restore their position for some of the more lucrative routes - stuff like Melbourne to Mildura where they massively undercut them on price.
I hope they can make it work - Iâve not flown on them - but all the reports are good and they look like the only viable third major domestic player.
Rex is not heading in the right direction. Half its Saab fleet are parked and likely never to fly again, they have no Pilots, look at the domestic operations cash loss in the last report. Look at how much they have used from its Singapore investor, they are down to the last millions.
They are heading for insolvency very soon. I guess they might get a government bailout. Government wonât want those regional routes cut, but Rex are doing nothing to sort out its current issues.
Rex seem happy to destroy their regional Business to keep their 737 offering going.
Iâm not too sure weather this has been mentioned but Melbourne Victory have now lost a sponsor because of this.
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Reportedly Turkish Airlines are going to be the replacement next season
Well there you go, 777 Partners also have a stake in Melbourne Victory.
They seem to operate like a payday lender. Source cash from Cayman and Bemuda, pass that on with high interest to its high risk investments, earn income via that.
I reckon its Flair Airlines venture might be next. Having a Quick Look, doesnât appears like itâs made any money. Just alarm bells. That would leave Canada without a low cost player if that happens. Flew Westjet last year, and Flair back on one flight. You think our fares are expensive, we had huge issues trying to find anything affordable intra Canada. Most flights $400-$500 return for domestic hops.
777 group just seems like a dodgy company, even before Bonza started flying their was reports about Flair financial issues and getting plans repossessed. Yet they still pushed ahead with Bonza and got them off the ground, I always thought that Flair was going to go before Bonza.
How quick did things go downhill I think it was only December when they launched on the Gold Coast. That was very rocky with extra planes being delayed and lots of flights canceled. I think the handling of this was terrible trying to push through a schedule without the planes on the ground. Although apart from this their is still a lot of love for the airline in some areas. Its a shame that many services that were well supported will most likely be lost forever.
They also seem to be mixed in a take over bid for Everton Football Club in the UK
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Refunds? They are in Administration. At absolute best should they somewhat ever restart (chance is 0%), you might get a credit like Virgin.
Customers can kiss that cash goodbye.
Once it moves to liquidation, you wonât even get 5c.
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Iâm hoping if my chargeback doesnât work that they will at least send me some budgie smugglers in the mail! 
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