It’s tough operating an airline in Australia’s skies, as Bonza is finding out. Australia’s latest airline promises to be a boon for regional travel across east coast Australia, but Bonza has been repeatedly stalled in its efforts to get airborne.

After promising services starting in mid-2022, later revised to September, the airline is yet to carry its first passenger, currently waiting on its Air Operator’s Certificate to be signed off by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). Meanwhile Bonza’s three Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft, “Bazza”, “Shazza” and “Sheila”, are sitting idle at the airline’s Sunshine Coast base.

Australia’s aviation industry is peppered with airlines that failed to survive in the long term, facing tough competition from the established players who from time to time have been aided and abetted by the Australian government to ensure that rivals are not allowed to prosper.

Compass, Australia’s first low-cost airline begins operations, 1990

Until the early 1990s Australia had a government-mandated two-airline policy. The two domestic airlines – Ansett and Australian Airlines – operated a duopoly, charging the same fares, with similar sized fleets operating mainly on the same inter-city routes. East-West Airlines was an early upstart that tried to muscle in with cheaper airfares but the government stepped in and punted the carrier to regional…