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Bonza has announced its fifth aircraft will arrive next year, following the launch of its Gold Coast base.
The low-cost carrier is set to name the new plane ‘Matilda’ after the Matildas football team, which reached the FIFA Women’s World Cup semi-final this year. It will join Bonza’s four other 737 MAX 8 aircraft, which are nicknamed ‘Bazza’, ‘Shazza’, ‘Sheila’ and ‘Malc’.
“Like the rest of the nation, our team of legends have been gripped by Matilda Mania thanks to their sportsmanship, mateship with one another and their pride in wearing the green and gold. As an airline that is solely focused on Australia, it seemed fitting to name our next aircraft Matilda,” said Carly Povey, chief commercial officer at Bonza.
“From all of us here at Bonza, congratulations and well done to the Matildas for what you’ve achieved on and off the pitch.”
Bonza earlier this month announced it would launch its third base on the Gold Coast, flying to 11 existing destinations: Albury, Bundaberg, Cairns, Gladstone, Mackay, Melbourne Avalon, Melbourne Tullamarine, Mildura, Rockhampton, Townsville and the Whitsunday Coast. Eight of these routes are not served by any other airline.
The airline’s CEO, Tim Jordan, said the announcement would create more “depth” in the network by connecting existing Bonza destinations to the third base.
“New routes from the Gold Coast also mean locals from South Brisbane down to Northern NSW regions, like Ballina and Byron Bay, have the chance to explore their own backyard with low-cost flights to regional locations like Mildura, Bundy and Townsville, to name a few,” he said.
“We’ll be adding new destinations to our route map that will fly from the Gold Coast, and we continue to welcome conversations with airports around the country as we fulfil our mission to connect communities.
“Our focus continues to be on unserved and underserved markets that we know would benefit from low-cost flights.”
Bonza will work with its sister Canadian airline Flair under a wet lease agreement, with Flair flying Bonza-branded flights using its aircraft and crews in the Australian summer and Bonza reciprocating with its own aircraft and crews in the North American peak season.
