Jake Nelson

Speaking to the House Standing Committee on Economics in Toowoomba last month, Manish Raniga, chief executive officer, airline investments at 777 Partners, said the “length of runway” for Bonza will eventually “run out” if the airline cannot gain appropriate access to Australia’s largest airport.

VH-OQI, which left the Victorville boneyard in January, saw two issues in the span of two days late last week – one of which forced it to return to London on a flight to Singapore.

The firm, which employs almost 4,000 employees across 16 catering facilities in Australia, is seeking to fill frontline roles at major and regional airports, as well as support roles in areas including finance, procurement and culinary.

Speaking exclusively to Australian Aviation, Povey said that she was “confident” the network changes meant Bonza now has enough aircraft to service the 22 routes it will keep after 1 August.

Interim Sunshine Coast Airport CEO Gary Allen said that he “fully understands and supports” the airline’s decision, which was made to boost reliability on higher-demand routes.

Chief customer officer Carly Povey admitted to Australian Aviation that the decision to cut back services had been made earlier than Bonza would have liked, and added the company was compelled to take out routes where there wasn’t “sustainable demand at present”.