Bonza promises to be the independent low-cost airline many Australian consumers have prayed for, but some are questioning whether the market is big enough to host another player.
Funded by US private investment firm 777 Partners, Bonza said it would begin flying from as early as next year using Boeing 737-8 aircraft.
Its strategy, according to CEO Tim Jordan, would be to provide routes into leisure destinations where travel is normally limited by connections via major cities.
But cracking Australia's duopoly airline market is a task easier said than done.
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Neil Hansford is chairman of Strategic Aviation Solutions. He has over 40 years providing business plan assessments to airlines, and says the focus on purely flying holidaymakers is not sustainable.
"The thing is, nobody will survive in Australia on flying just the leisure market. You need an element of the business market to get sufficient yield from your passengers," Mr Hansford said to 9News.com.au.
"You can't just fill planes with 90 per cent of cheap seats."
According to Hansford, Bonza's headline strategy of providing unique routes to regional communities has one major hurdle: the physical size of the runways they intend to land at.
"The amount of airports that will be able to take the 737-800 in regional areas is low. It's a whole different requirement for airports to take this aircraft compared to a Dash 8-400," Mr Hansford said.
"You need a 30-metre runway. Once you're on the coast, you're fine – we've upgraded the airports up and down the east coast. But Bonza is talking about operating to regional centres and certainly Rex is not going to give them any starts on home routes like Armidale, Tamworth and Wagga.
"So Qantaslink and Rex are likely to hold onto passengers on those routes pretty well."
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But Bonza's CEO is confident that the Australian market is primed for a new competitor.
"Bonza's mission is to encourage more travel by providing more choices and ultra-low fares, particularly into leisure destinations where travel is now often limited to connections via major cities," Mr Jordan said at the airline's launch.
"Bonza will deliver enormous benefits to all Australians, but particularly to regional communities by providing new routes and greater travel opportunities.
"Bonza will also play a leading role in Australia's post-pandemic economic recovery – creating jobs, stimulating travel and consumer spending and helping regional communities, especially those that rely on tourism, get back on their feet."
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Mr Hansford said strategically, Bonza may take an interest in routes to the Whitsundays or picturesque coastal areas in Western Australia, but only time will tell whether the passenger demand is high enough to support a separate carrier.
"Australia is a very hard market to crack because we've only got 26 million people on the fifth-largest continent. And basically 70 per cent of us live on the eastern seaboard. That's why it's difficult," Mr Hansford said.
"If you asked me for some odds of whether it'll get off the ground – meaning a five or six aircraft fleet – I would give you odds of no greater than five per cent."
