iscover
Just one Bonza 737 MAX remains in Australia after a third aircraft quietly departed on Monday morning.
VH-UJT, better known as ‘Shazza’, took off from the Sunshine Coast at 7:58 am and landed in Port Hedland at 10:33am, and is now due to fly to Kuala Lumpur.
YouTube user Bens Aviation claims to have captured footage, above, of its departure this morning.
Currently, only VH-UJK, Sheila, remains in the country after the earlier exit of VH-UIK ‘Bazza’ and C-FLHI ‘Bruce’.
It comes after administrator Hall Chadwick previously admitted it would be unable to stop the planes from leaving the country.
Bonza entered voluntary administration last month after its lessors seized its fleet of 737 MAX 8s and cancelled all flights.
In total, Bonza owes money to around 60,000 people and companies. The debts include $5 million owed to 323 staff and close to $16 million owed to trade creditors.
However, despite the lack of aircraft and large debts, Hall Chadwick still believes a successful acquisition could be possible.
Last week, the firm said Bonza would remain grounded for another two weeks and the entity kept alive rather than moving it into liquidation.
Administrator Hall Chadwick added flights will not resume before 29 May, and staff would remain stood down until then as talks continue with “interested parties” who could potentially save the embattled airline.
The continued stand-down comes after Hall Chadwick previously told creditors it was speaking to 20 potential buyers for the airline, with around six “very interested parties”.
“The administrators continue with their efforts to maximise the chances of the company or as much as possible of its business continuing in existence; or if this is not possible, to achieve a better result for the company’s creditors than that which would result if the company was immediately wound up,” Hall Chadwick said in a statement.
“The administrators have continued to be in discussions and meetings with various investors, other airlines and companies from the travel industry over the weekend and early this week.
“The administrators advised creditors at last Friday’s meeting that a timeframe for interested parties would be set. To that end, we have set and communicated that timeframe to interested parties.”
One potential buyer, Vietnamese low-cost carrier VietJet, is already understood to have walked away from the talks and has been contacted for comment.
