Despite pushing Aussie travellers onto its app to make bookings, new low-cost carrier Bonza says travel agents and the travel trade remain a strong focus for the airline.
In an interview with Karryon, Bonza CEO Tim Jordan said, “indeed, travel agents are an important part of our proposition to the market and our distribution to the market. That remains so”.
“More than 95 per cent of bookings are coming through our app, which tells you that it is being very, very well and broadly received,” he said.
“I think there was a period [when] I think we were out-downloading Tik Tok at one point, and I think we still may be, which tells you how well the app adoption is actually going.”
However, Jordan added that “we have had more than 1,000 travel agents sign up with us”.
“And that is really, really encouraging and something we’re very grateful for,” he said.
“And those bookings will continue to grow, we hope, as we continue to grow our purple wings … as we expand across the rest of the country.”
The Bonza boss also confirmed that “to the best of my knowledge, they are all Australian-based [agents]”.
“I know we have had enquiries from across the Tasman [in New Zealand], but I’m not sure in terms of bookings and establishing those,” he said.
“So … certainly the vast majority are domestic based.”
Surprising sector
In an interview with Karryon when the airline launched (read our review of the first flight), Bonza chief commercial officer Carly Povey said the carrier’s strategy was to keep costs low to keep airfares down, but the Bonza travel agent portal was a clear indication of its willingness to work with the trade.
She added that Bonza had also already seen a strong interest in group and event travel, which represents opportunities for agents.
Jordan told Karryon the airline had been “pleasantly surprised” with the number of group and event bookings it had seen.
“And that is continuing to grow, which is really encouraging,” he said.
Third base coming
Meanwhile, the Bonza boss all but ruled out flights between Sydney and Melbourne, saying the airline was not keen on becoming “the fifth carrier” on the route.
“That’s not us. What we are about is introducing new route choice. So, unserved markets or underserved markets,” he stated.
“There may be other services already operating on specific markets, but they may be very, very much focused on business travellers.”
Jordan also said that there were “a number of locations that are now putting their hand up” for aircraft basing as well as additional destinations on the Bonza network.
“We will probably add capacity where we are seeing strength. We will take away capacity where we’re seeing weakness, but that’s just business as usual,” he remarked.
“What we are focused on at the moment is improving where we need to improve … and then we will focus again on growing – and growing to likely a third base later this year.”
Jordan said the airline would “clearly love to enter the market of Sydney if we could actually get slots which allowed us to”.
