Originally Posted by
neville_nobody
After hearing a few interviews I still don't get it. New aircraft, low frequency, under served cities pairs etc. But if you look at all the airlines he references none of them did that. They were originally charter operators with old aircraft operating charter services to either holiday destinations or secondary airports. Bonza is none of this and there are no secondary airports in Australia. So I have no idea why he thinks it will work in Australia as he is not doing what all the airlines he references did. Second to this Australia doesn't have a "winter sun" market which is what alot of LCC in cold weather climates rely on. What is the leisure market in Australia out of school holidays? Australia doesn't have a Las Vegas or Orlando type destination either.
Spot on - Allegiant made money by flying Maddogs that had minimal ownership costs, sometimes only 2-3 times per week, on routes that would not make sense for a large scale airline. There is no way that you can replicate that using shiny new Maxes among such a small population without a well defined target market, Australian labour costs, and manage to turn a buck by filling those 189 seats at leisure fares. If you were running 100 seat aircraft that were being thrown at you for nothing, then there may be something to it. But this just doesn't stack up.