Bonza a welcome arrival to the Far North

WELCOME news came today of Bonza airlines, Australia’s only independent low-cost carrier, being granted an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA).

This will certainly, as Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government Minister Catherine King said, put “downward pressure on fares”.

It will also boost competition in the aviation sector and increase connectivity between major centres in the north, and bring Cairns that bit closer to other centres on the eastern seaboard.

It is welcome, too, after the two years of the chaos and mayhem that Covid wrought on the aviation sector, from planes being mothballed in the desert outside Las Vegas and massive staff layoffs to piles of unclaimed luggage and exasperatingly long waits on the end of the phone to airlines.

We will be spoiled for choice and Australian travellers will be taking to the skies again in droves, if we’re not already.

The new airline will help cater to the expected surge in demand for travel as the world recovers from the pandemic.

It’s no doubt a tough market. Through 2022 the world witnessed galloping inflation from supply chain breakdowns caused by staffing issues, in turn caused by the pandemic, food and petroleum price rises caused by war in Ukraine, and weathered the government responses of increasing interest rates.

But airlines are like any other business, and facing these kinds of pressures they can’t be expected to keep airfares low for ever.

So let’s make hay while the sun shines and welcome a new carrier as a wonderful boost for our region.