Bonza given green light to fly to Gold Coast as fares crash

Pressure on airfares could ease ahead of Christmas after the aviation regulator gave Bonza the green light to use its Canadian sister airline’s planes and crew to fly to the Gold Coast.

Bonza was forced to stop flying from Darwin and put plans to fly from Avalon, the Whitsundays and Cairns into the Gold Coast on hold after it failed to satisfy Civil Aviation Safety Authority approval processes around integrating Canada-registered aircraft from parent Flair Airlines.

The challenger airline said it would immediately resume flights and cut fares as a way of thanking customers for their patience. On Tuesday, it started flying from the Whitsundays, as it creates a second base on the Gold Coast with the two wet leased Flair aircraft.

CASA approval comes as new analysis showed Bonza’s arrival onto the Melbourne to Gold Coast route – where all six domestic airlines now fly – in mid-November prompted as much as a 54.4 per cent drop in fares from rival Virgin Australia.

Analysis conducted by the Australian Airport Association on behalf of Melbourne Airport showed December last year was “the most expensive month in Australian aviation history, especially around the Christmas week”.