PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Bonza has its AOC
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Old 8th Apr 2024, 01:15
  #868 (permalink)  
ebt
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Perth
Posts: 239
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Their CEO has said that they are close to breakeven, but the recent tech issues, wet leases etc would likely have blown that out of the water. That is probably also impacting their ability to wring out all the ancillaries that their model relies upon, so that makes it hard to bump up the revenue side and the cost only grows.

Then look across the Pacific at Flair and you have to wonder what 777 is playing at. Flair just lost its only competitor in the low cost space but seems to be lurching from crisis to crisis. Bonza is no doubt haemorraging money, and 777's dubious financing may be drying up as they are struggling to get their Everton takeover deal sealed. If it were my money, I would shut down the airlines and instead just focus on leasing aircraft, which is much more lucrative than owning AOCs, especially when you have the types that everyone wants in an LCC config.

Bonza looked like the goods when you could get cheap 737 Maxes and pilots to fly them during the pandemic, but Kansas has gone bye-bye.

Personally, I would love to see the Bonza model live long and prosper. I think that there is money to be made out there with some of the routes they have tapped that are being ignored by the Big Two. But what it really needs is a set of E195-E1s or A319s that are/were cheap as chips, and run them for 10-12 hours per day, plus taking cargo, holidays and any other way imaginable to generate the revenue that allows you to sell cheap base fares. Still, that wouldn't make them immune from AOGs, pilot poaching or any of the other challenges that are part and parcel of the business these days.
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