Mick
VA was serving Mildura pre-pandemic with 737s
Bonza (2 per week) is proposing 19,000 per week to MCY (Brisbane North) I stand corrected which is less than currently go to Sydney
Mildura locals are being offered a non stop route to Brisbane (with land transfer) shaving hours off a 1 stop trip and avoiding Sydney or Melbourne at less than 1/2 the price
Regarding Bonza's routes and frequencies, there is an almost identical number of flights to the north and to the south, that's no coincidence....
If check in luggage was loaded correctly for a quick from 1 plane to another and passengers transferring to another flight flight were guider quickly to a remote check in, then this (even for an ULCC) can work easily
May just be 10-20% of all seats on any flight using MCY as a hub, but this is a great way to get seats filled on slim routes
Moving forward, I note there will be a presence in Avalon as well as Tully. Nothing to Sydney and they are also getting a foot in at Wellcamp
It is fairly obvious that they are waiting for SWA to open before they look at Sydney and going to avoid major city airports where they can