Originally Posted by
Icarus2001
There are one or two other airlines in Australia that would be surprised to hear that.
And look what QF is doing to Airnorth by jumping on the Darwin - TSV/CNS routes. Especially TSV, which Airnorth has built from scratch.
They should have pushed harder years ago create a bigger ejet network ex-DRW. E195’s to Bali or down to southern Australia.
Either that or stick to their knitting and just focused on being the dominant turboprop operator in the NT. Now they’re going to be squeezed like all the other regionals that went broke in the last decade.
Australia does have a viable market underneath QF (less than 70 seater routes). REX dominate this with the Saab and low costs.
IMHO there’s a case for another large independent running a combination of B1900 and C208’s from bases all over the country as well. A combined Torres Strait/Tiwi Islands/Kimberley/Bass Strait network. Historically there’s always been work in these areas for that size aircraft.
If “Bonza” can find a niche flying 2-3 times a week to some places, go for it. I don’t think they’ll ever be very big though and with that, means they’ll be vulnerable to Jetstar just coming in and also flying 2-3 services a week to cut their grass.