Bonza has just revealed Gold Coast Airport as its third airline hub and second base in Queensland. In total, two aircraft will operate flights to 11 existing network destinations from November 2023 in time for the summer holidays.
With the announcement, Gold Coast Airport will welcome eight new Bonza routes to Albury, Bundaberg, Gladstone, Mackay, Mildura, Whitsunday Coast, Rockhampton and Townsville plus extra services to existing Cairns and Melbourne routes.
Four routes (Bundaberg, Gladstone, Whitsunday Coast and Mildura) have never been available from the Gold Coast before with one-way flights starting from $49.
The $100 million deal will add 70 new flights per week and almost 700,000 passenger seats per year for Gold Coast Airport. Australia’s newest airline launched in January and already operates out of Sunshine Coast and Melbourne airports.
Bonza CEO Tim Jordan said the news is about creating more depth in the airline’s network by connecting existing destinations with the Gold Coast.
“It is a huge boost for the economy and allows people in our existing destinations the opportunity to book an affordable flight to Gold Coast Airport,” he said.
“New routes from the Gold Coast also mean locals from South Brisbane down to Northern NSW regions, like Ballina and Byron Bay, have low-cost flights to regional locations like Mildura, Bundy and Townsville, to name a few.”
New routes on the way?
Additional and new destinations from Gold Coast Airport will be revealed, “when the time is right”.
The low-cost carrier will also cut five routes and reduce or increase the frequency of some services from 1 August 2023.
“We’ll be adding new destinations to our route map from the Gold Coast as we fulfil our mission to connect communities. Our focus continues on unserved and underserved markets we know would benefit from low-cost flights,” Jordan said.
Big boost for the GC
Gold Coast Airport recorded its third-busiest June on record, welcoming 482,000-plus passengers – around 7,500 more than in June 2019.
Queensland Airports Limited CEO Amelia Evans said the new partnership will provide a big boost to the local economy.
“These new routes will deliver more than $100 million in economic benefit to this region each year,” Ms Evans said.
“Many of these routes are new and very competitively priced, which is great for our customers and visitors to our region.”
Elsewhere in Oz
In a June interview with Karryon, Jordan said the airline would “clearly love to enter the market of Sydney if we could actually get slots which allowed us to”.
“We believe there are up to initially about 20 destinations that we could service to and from Sydney,” he told Karryon.
Jordan also said travel agents and the travel trade remain a strong focus for the airline.
“Indeed, travel agents are an important part of our proposition to the market and our distribution to the market. That remains so.”
For more info, head to flybonza.com
