It’s been six months since Bonza launched, promising low cost flights between regional cities. But as CEO Tim Jordan tells Ticker’s Ahron Young, it hasn’t been all clear skies.

Start an airline, they say. Fourteen years after originally having the idea for Bonza, Tim Jordan is still navigating Australia’s notoriously difficult aviation market.

And the recovery from the pandemic isn’t helping. From delays in securing airline parts, to dealing with staff shortages, Bonza is trying to build a reputation as a positive force in the airline industry, while battling against the realities of flying.

Bonza launched in Australia with four aircraft on nearly 30 routes, but after six months, they have had to pull back to three (and a half) aircraft, while reducing routes by five.

Bonza CEO Tim Jordan acknowledges the rocky start but says more aircraft due to enter service by the end of the year will help the airline with its growth strategy.

“It was a great idea 14 years ago, and it’s an even better idea now,” says Jordan.

“Certainly, we, we, as an airline, we as a business, all of us within the airline, we aspire to do things very well.

“As, you know, the definition of Bonza is a great thing well executed. We cannot be Bonza if we don’t deliver Bonza.

“And with that in mind over the last couple of months, we probably let ourselves down and let our customers down. And very importantly, Team Bonza are as well.”

Making it right

Jordan says it’s an issue which the team is urgently addressing.

“That’s not something we’re very comfortable with. So what we put in place last week, was we’ve effectively been flying with our four aircraft. We’ve been flying about three and a half aircraft worth schedule.
Unfortunately, when you lose an aircraft because of a bird strike or because of because of a mechanical issue, you don’t lose half an aircraft, you lose a whole aircraft.”

Jordan says the company has decided to withdraw from some routs so the airline can focus on punctuality and reliability.

“So what we’ve effectively done is pullback our scheduled operations from three and a half aircraft back down to three. That gives us the dedicated spare aircraft that we need for it for times of disruption when we need to make sure customers get on their way in a timely way and we deliver to our customers but also to our crews.”