New budget airline Bonza is promising some of the cheapest flights in Australia, but more than six months after it hoped to have planes in the sky, the company's take-off date is still unclear.
Plans for the start-up carrier were revealed in October 2021 with hopes it would be operating by the middle of this year.
But after repeated delays, the airline is still navigating regulatory approvals with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to obtain its Air Operator's Certificate.
Bonza chief executive Tim Jordan said he was unsure when flights would begin but was confident demand would be there when they did.
"This is the first new high-capacity airline in Australia for 15 years, and obviously the process associated with signing that off is quite thorough," Mr Jordan said.
"Once we believe we are ready, we will reach out to the regulator and ask for them to come and make sure that is absolutely the case."
Bonza will offer a 27-route network across 17 mostly regional locations in Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria.
The company's third Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft touched down at its base on the Sunshine Coast this week.
Mr Jordan said the airline would acquire up to eight aircraft in its first year of operation.
"Our significant point of difference really is that of our initial 27 routes, 25 of them are not flown by the other operators," he said.
"We will be offering very low fares in the market and it's something which is desperately wanted across many, many regional areas."
"We would expect approximately that cost of flying [for passengers] shouldn't be much more than about $50 an hour."
Competition could make flying cheaper
In a statement, a CASA spokesperson said the authority was continuing to work closely with the Bonza team on the airline's application, but was waiting to receive key documents before it could complete the process.
"CASA will be able to make a final decision once all documentation has been received and assessed and a proving flight completed," the spokesperson said.
Central Queensland University head of aviation Doug Drury said Bonza's low-fare model could drive the cost of its competitors' airfares down, at least in the short term.
But given the size of the aircraft and current cost of fuel, he said it would be "quite a challenge to be able to turn that into a profitable operation".
"Bonza has got a lot of work ahead of them to get and keep customers coming back," Professor Drury said.
"But they're going after a niche market, and if they do that well, it will force change with Rex and Virgin and Qantas.
"They are definitely going after a younger audience, with their colour scheme and hip uniforms. This is kind of how Virgin started, when they were trying to attract a younger clientele."
Not everyone is convinced
Some in the tourism industry have their doubts about Bonza's feasibility.
Debbie Rains has owned and operated travel agencies in Townsville, Mackay and Rockhampton for 35 years.
"I'm a little bit cynical, to be perfectly honest," she said.
"There have been a lot of airlines in the past that have started some of these routes and they just haven't been sustainable.
"We just don't have that population density, and certainly even less so in the regions, to be able to put a lot of bums on seats to really make these airlines viable."
Ms Rains said it was disappointing the airline had not started operating in time for the end-of-year holiday rush.
"We've seen through the agencies, just people wanting to spend time with loved ones," Ms Rains said.
"So to have another carrier operating, it would have taken a little bit of that angst out of the equation, [knowing] there's choice to be able to jump on a different aircraft if need be."
