Hundreds of families have had their travel plans thrown into chaos with budget airline Bonza cancelling over half a dozen routes to and from the Gold Coast.
Flights impacted to/from the Gold Coast are Darwin, Bundaberg, Gladstone, Avalon, Cairns, Whitsundays and Mildura with additional routes expected to be cancelled later this week.
The airline has had to “defer” flights due to delays while waiting for Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) regulators to approve the use of another aircraft.
Bonza has not been able to provide a new start date for the routes, with dates yet to be locked in.
The news comes less than three weeks since the budget airline launched their base on the Gold Coast.
Impacted customers will be offered a full refund.
Bonza CEO Tim Jordan provided the below statement to myGC.
“As we’ve previously shared, in the short term we will use an aircraft leased from our partner Flair at our Gold Coast base whilst we recruit Aussie crew for this third base. This arrangement brings with it a separate regulatory approval process. That process is progressing but is not yet complete and, as a result, we’ve had to make the regrettable decision to defer flights to/from Gold Coast to Darwin, Bundaberg, Gladstone, Avalon, Cairns, Whitsundays and Mildura and are also making some additional cancellations for this week to other routes,” the statement reads.
“The new start date for the impacted routes is currently being worked through but we remain very committed to offering a service to these markets and deeply apologise for having to make this decision,
“At this point our priority is to inform our impacted customers as efficiently as possible so that they can make alternative arrangements. Customers will be contacted by us in date order (based on their date of travel) and will be automatically offered a full refund,
“We are acutely aware of the impact this has on our customers and we are very sorry for this.”
