New 'Bonza' LCC launches middle 2022 with B737 MAX

[PoppaJo]

Ohhhhh we have a block function. Thanks for that. Never to be heard again.

[C441]

Hopefully they've secured a few pax through this sporting association…...

Miami-based 777 Partners, which is also backing start-up airline Bonza’s entry into the Australian aviation market, was announced as a (Melbourne) Victory shareholder and investor on Wednesday morning.

[Traffic_Is_Er_Was]

Bonza would be awesome for connecting Sunny Coast locals that have relocated here from other regions

How many residents/relatives would have to fly how many times to/from how many places to make that a viable business model to any destination? OOL with twice the population, plus northern NSW to tap into doesn't offer those minimal city pairs. Shazza and Dazza wanting to go back to Mildura once a year to see the rellies at Christmas is hardly a reason to run a 170 seat jet there 3 times a week. You can't run a 737 airline on the premise only a few people need (or might want to depending on the price) go somewhere. You have to know a lot of people need to go somewhere (and you pick up the might want to's as gravy). I remain unconvinced there is a need in Australia for a lot of people to fly regularly enough between some of the city pairs being touted to make a high-capacity, high expense, machine economically sustainable (or even a low-capacity one). Tried booking a Jetgo seat lately?

Pelican had a go from NTL to MCY but only managed 3 per week seasonal, where as JQ runs daily to the OOL with decent numbers
3-4 weekly NTL - MCY should be viable for Bonza at their price point

Pelican struggled to fill a turboprop 3 times a week, yet needing a 140 plus extra bums per flight on a 737 would be viable?
OOL has twice the population of the Sunny Coast and is a major destination in itself for tourists, domestically and internationally. MCY is not.

[Deano969]

Pelican was an expensive option to MCY from NTL plus 2 hours in a small prop
Sub $100 fares will fill seats and you can take that to the bank

You need to widen your catchment criteria
As I have posted earlier
Mildura to a bunch of destinations further north 1 stop, not just Sunny Coast
Mildura to BNE through MCY via Connexion without transferring at SYD or MEL

[Ladloy]

Originally Posted by Deano969

Pelican was an expensive option to MCY from NTL plus 2 hours in a small prop
Sub $100 fares will fill seats and you can take that to the bank

You need to widen your catchment criteria
As I have posted earlier
Mildura to a bunch of destinations further north 1 stop, not just Sunny Coast
Mildura to BNE through MCY via Connexion without transferring at SYD or MEL

maybe rex should do it?

[Traffic_Is_Er_Was]

Mildura to BNE through MCY via Connexion without transferring at SYD or MEL

Or Mildura to BNE via MEL without having to sit in a minibus for an hour (or 2+ if it's a Sunday arvo on the Bruce HWY)

Sub $100 fares will fill seats and you can take that to the bank

But it still won't pay the bills.

Mildura to a bunch of destinations further north 1 stop, not just Sunny Coast

There's only 32k people in Mildura. How many do you think need to fly to anywhere in QLD regularly?

Pelican was an expensive option to MCY from NTL plus 2 hours in a small prop

And they didn't reduce fares to less than cost to fill the aircraft they had, or buy larger ones and hope.

[TBM-Legend]

As the old saying goes “ you cannot sell $10 tickets for $9 and stay in business!”

many costs in aviation are the same for all operators so where are the real lower costs?

[PoppaJo]

Cost base would be your standard loco setup, lease everything and outsource the lot minus Pilots and Cabin crew. Not really an edge as such, the guys over the fence operate to the same principles, however I don’t think think they are trying to get the lowest cost base in market, seems more skewed around nutting out a monopoly market share on these leisure ‘driving’ routes as they said. However many people do actually like driving these routes. Have you seen the costs of car hire lately when one arrives by plane?

They don’t really have the ability to cut costs should the routes not perform. I mean they could go and start outsourcing safety departments to other countries however I think someone has already tried that once.

[43Inches]

You can't compare Bonza to J* in any way. J* is a device created and supported by QF to deter competition and artificially diffuse what would otherwise be regarded a monopoly. J* gets bums on seats through a massive spend on advertising and cross promotion and on carriage with it's parent and partner airlines. Without a huge fleet you will have no way to recoup such marketing costs. So saying J* gets loads out of Newcastle, well its no doubt, but how much have they spent promoting to and attracting that custom, small operators have no chance to spend that much and make profit. To see how important marketing is you need just look at Rex loads as said earlier. Very little marketing and reliance on a small regional market with word of mouth the prime spreader, it's taking a long while to build up numbers.

[SHVC]

Well in the age of Facebook and Instagram advertising cost are pretty a lot lower than previous. I don’t see JQ advertise anywhere else other than the odd add when they’re doing a new route.

[43Inches]

Originally Posted by SHVC

Well in the age of Facebook and Instagram advertising cost are pretty a lot lower than previous. I don’t see JQ advertise anywhere else other than the odd add when they’re doing a new route.

Thats what rex is doing. TV adverts are one point of contact, J* ads you will see as bannerads on websites, billboards, trains, magazines, papers, radio, sports sponserships, and other sponserships in the guise of goodwill but is just advertising. Even travel shows are paid behind the scenes to promote operators. Then theres loyalty programs, cross promotion throughout the group, codeshares and aliances. You start to see how hard it is to fight the big players. There are so many ads for the QF group out there you almost dont see them from white noise, but your subconcious does.

Right now there is a lull in marketing as people are just booking like mad, the encumbants will always get a big swathe due to brand awareness. Outside of aviation hardly anyone knows who Rex and Bonza are. Its up to the newcomers to let the public know who they are, then maybe repeat custon will occur. Even with the shitshow at QF group at the moment a lot of affected passengers dont even know other options are possible.

[Wizofoz]

Originally Posted by 43Inches

Outside of aviation hardly anyone knows who Rex and Bonza are. .

The 150 pax who got off the Rex flight I was just on, together with the 130 odd I was with, and the 150 who were waiting to get on when we landed all seemed to know who Rex is...

[Lead Balloon]

Originally Posted by Wizofoz

The 150 pax who got off the Rex flight I was just on, together with the 130 odd I was with, and the 150 who were waiting to get on when we landed all seemed to know who Rex is...

Any chance on a Venn Diagram of those pax? I'm guessing the 150 pax who got off the Rex flight you were just on will be in different circles to the 150 waiting to board, but I'm confused about the "130 odd [you were with]".

[43Inches]

Originally Posted by Wizofoz

The 150 pax who got off the Rex flight I was just on, together with the 130 odd I was with, and the 150 who were waiting to get on when we landed all seemed to know who Rex is...

Good signs then, but they have to sustain those loads on into the future and expand the fleet as well as get some peak slots into Sydney, long way to go yet. Also probably a result of the commission based sales starting to kick in, a great many people still use travel agents and booking services, even to book short holidays, rather than just buy direct from the airline.

QF group was back in the headlines again regarding its refund policy during covid and now profiteering off captured funds. This will end up in ACCC soon if they're not careful as a lot of consumers are still affected. How can they still get away with withholding refunds and then charging the gap to use the credits later when no service had been provided on the original ticket and it seems not even interest on the funds.

[MickG0105]

Originally Posted by 43Inches

... Also probably a result of the commission based sales starting to kick in, ...

Since signing up with Flight Centre, Rex's loads for jet ops have been good across pretty much all sectors. Since putting -MFM into service, they having been slowly ramping frequency up on the triangle - managing 27 flights SYD-MEL-BNE on Monday, 39 for the overall jet network for the day. Since trying to deliver more flights though, on-time performance has gone backwards (compounded by other factors as well this week).

Bonza, on the other hand, are looking to utilise a single sales channel - their app. A further quirk to an already quirky business model.

[43Inches]

Well sounds like its on the up then, good for them. But yeah last week esp south east coast was a nightmare for OTP for everyone I think. Lots of factors from breakdowns to crew to weather for just about all operators. Spring is looking quite miserable for weather up the East coast, fill the fuel up and stay safe...

Bonza, on the other hand, are looking to utilise a single sales channel - their app. A further quirk to an already quirky business model.

This whole model is beyond quirky, I'm yet to see the evil plan they have behind the scenes to actually make money. Still the only thing that makes any sense is they merge into a bigger operator with slots for the Max.

[Mr_App]

I reckon some routes like Bundaberg to Melbourne and Sydney could work. Population 100k, only has two QLink flights a day to Brisbane.

Rockhampton has never really taken off. Tiger tried about three times, J* has pulled out from memory also. Bonza going in hard with 4 destinations. Rockhampton to Townsville sure is a strange one. I recall Tiger tried the Melbourne run, the Airbus was just too big however. Not sure why the MAX will fair any better.

I think you will find out of all the routes, the best performing one will be the one with competition. That being Melbourne to Sunny Coast. Question marks sit around the rest.

[HappyBandit]

Didn't Jetgo have a go at the Bundy to Sydney? Or was it Glt-Syd? They often only had 1 pax on these sectors.

[AerialPerspective]

Originally Posted by SHVC

Well in the age of Facebook and Instagram advertising cost are pretty a lot lower than previous. I don’t see JQ advertise anywhere else other than the odd add when they’re doing a new route.

Add what?? Or do you mean 'ad' (as in advertisement).

[Mr_App]

Originally Posted by HappyBandit

Didn't Jetgo have a go at the Bundy to Sydney? Or was it Glt-Syd? They often only had 1 pax on these sectors.

Appears Gladstone. The below quote really sums up the whole failure that was Jetgo. Bonza are relying on the same sort of crowd correct?

Chief executive officer Jason Ryder said, We need everybody in Gladstone to buy at least one ticket and we'll be there forever."