Bonza Airline revises routes to ensure flight capacity

The airline has had a troubled start to operations out of Tamworth.

It began flying to the Sunshine Coast and Melbourne in May, offering Tuesday and Friday flights, however, the Sunshine Coast leg was discontinued mid July, due to low demand.

While the Melbourne route has proven more popular, experiencing strong demand and flights filled up to "80 per cent capacity" according to a Bonza spokesperson, the carrier has drawn criticism following a number of recent short-notice flight cancellations that it put down to "maintenance" needs.

Tamworth Business Chamber president Matthew Sweeney said businesses will find it difficult to book with Bonza if bookings were related to a scheduled meeting to attend.

"Bonza has cancelled with little or no notice and business needs clarity when travelling," he said.

"Although the cost with Qantas is high it is a least reliable - if a business is travelling for a meeting and not using zoom it can be assumed it is for an important meeting and can't be cancelled with almost no notice."

Mr Sweeney said the maintenance explanation was a bit "weak" when the airline was operating newer aircraft and providing less than 24 hours notice.

"Surely scheduled maintenance would be known well in advance in such a strict maintenance environment," he said.

Addressing these concerns, Bonza's chief commercial officer Carly Povey said Bonza had revised its operations, removing five routes which were not demonstrating sustainable demand including Sunshine Coast to Tamworth, Sunshine Coast to Coffs Harbour, Sunshine Coast to Port Macquarie, Cairns to Mackay and Toowoomba Wellcamp to Whitsunday Coast.

Ms Povey said these changes provided the airline with a spare aircraft, which would be critical in ensuring continued services.

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"The Bonza fleet comprises four new planes but they need to be maintained, and there can be issues - such as bird strikes - and required maintenance to ensure passenger safety," she said.

"It has been disappointing not to be able to deliver on our promises but we are learning and improving, and we now have an aircraft which can be slotted in when there is an issue with a plane needing to be taken off a route for maintenance."

Ms Povey also assured local travellers the Tamworth-Melbourne route was here to stay.

"There has been some issues with the [Tamworth-Melbourne] route, but Bonza is committed to Tamworth and the route, and we want to earn your trust," Ms Povey said.

"We are experiencing strong demand for the route, with flights filled up to 80 per cent capacity - this is a route people travel year round, and we hope to see higher local demand as we approach the summer holidays."

The commitment comes as the budget carrier announced on Tuesday, August 1, it will start flying to 11 destinations from a new base on the Gold Coast in November.

While Tamworth is not included, Ms Povey said there could be additional flights added for Tamworth in the future.

"It all depends on local demand," Ms Povey said.

"So, where to [for additional flights]? That's for Tamworth to tell us."

Tamworth Regional Council was approached for comment.

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