New budget airline Bonza has cancelled flights between Darwin and Gold Coast for the entire month of December, throwing Christmas travel plans into disarray.
The airline announced the cancellation just hours before the first Darwin to Gold Coast flight was due to take off late last week, blaming “regulatory approval processes” for the cancellation.
“As we’ve previously shared our Gold Coast base is due to be operated by our partner Flair in the short term whilst we recruit Aussie crew for our third base,” Bonza CEO Tim Jordan said.
“This arrangement brings with it separate regulatory approval process with CASA [the Civil Aviation Safety Authority]. That process is progressing but is not yet complete and as a result, we’ve had to make the regrettable decision to defer some flights between Gold Coast and Darwin in the coming weeks.
“We are acutely aware of the impact this has on our customers and we are very sorry for this.”
Bonza, which aims to fly routes not well serviced by other airlines, announced it would fly between the Sunshine Coast and Darwin, the Gold Coast and Darwin, and Alice Springs and Melbourne in September, with the flights to start from late November to mid-December.
Bonza has said flights on the Darwin to Gold Coast route will now begin on January 2, 2024.
The airline said there have been 1600 customers impacted by the changes, 1100 of whom have been offered flights to the Sunshine Coast as an alternate.
“At this point our priority is to inform our impacted customers as efficiently as possible so that they can make alternative arrangements,” Mr Jordan said.
“Customers will be contacted by us in date order (based on their date of travel with the first date being December 1) and do not need to contact Bonza.
“We will work through refunds or some limited options to move to flights to/from the Sunshine Coast however this process may take some time.”
Bonza is backed by 777 Partners, a Miami-based private equity group which also owns Canadian budget airline Flair.
The cancelled flights have ruined the holiday plans of many, including Darwin father of three Corey Reichstein
“We pretty much spent all of our savings getting the money together to fly into the Gold Coast, and the theme parks with the kids,” he told the ABC.
Mr Reichstein said he can’t recoup the close to $1000 he’s already paid, including for accommodation, theme park bookings and car hire.
He said his children were distraught after they were told they could no longer go on their first holiday in five years.
NT cattle station worker Mia Morris, who was due to fly to the Gold Coast to visit her family, is another passenger affected by the cancellations.
“There was a lot of loud conversations with my mum, we were both very stressed,” she told the ABC.
“She was just trying to help me. I’ve never really been through this before.”
Ms Morris has booked a replacement flight with another airline, costing her around $300 more than her original Bonza flight.