Community
22 April, 2024
Airline’s bonza tourism links
AUSTRALIA’S newest airline Bonza has flown more than 100,000 customers to and from Cairns in the past year.
Cairns rolled out the purple carpet in late March 2023 to welcome the first Bonza flight that touched down from the Sunshine Coast followed by the introduction of Rockhampton and Gold Coast services to the tropical north Queensland city.
“We have seen more than 100,000 travellers take up Bonza’s direct services flying between Cairns and the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast and Rockhampton,” said Bonza chief executive Tim Jordan.
“Bonza exists to make air travel affordable for the many, not the few, and with fares starting from $59 per person (one way) it’s less than what you would pay filling up your tank to travel from Cairns to Rocky,” he said.
“We’re proud to have stimulated a new market of travellers that without Bonza would have stayed home and that’s a lost tourism opportunity and also a lost opportunity to get out and experience our beautiful backyard.”
Cairns Airport chief executive officer Richard Barker said Bonza’s services had contributed to the region’s post-COVID recovery, injecting thousands of additional seats into the market each week.
“Travellers across regional Queensland enjoy the ease of Bonza’s non-stop services,” he said.
“Servicing key destinations with direct flights, such as Cairns to the Sunshine Coast and Rockhampton, has opened up fantastic new holiday options for locals and helped to reduce transit time for business travellers. The addition of the Gold Coast route has been a great way to round out the first year of Bonza in Cairns.”
In the meantime, passenger numbers through the airport continue to grow.
The figures for March show an increase overall of 10.6 per cent (34,366) to 358,455 people.
International visitors led the way, up 61.2 per cent (20,777) to 54,744 while domestically there was a 5.8 per cent rise (16,235) to 295,310.
In the past 12 months overall figures topped 4.7 million, an overall boost of 11.6 per cent (489,510), with the international terminal attracting 150 per cent more passengers (349,271) to total 561,747 while through the domestic terminal were 11.8 per cent extra (480,079) to total nearly 4 million.
