I49 Air and Space Transport

Qantas: new players can’t survive

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: 19 : 16-Jul-24

Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson has expressed her sadness at the collapse of Bonza but she said it showed Australia cannot support more domestic airlines, with Hudson speaking on Monday in Perth at the launch of Qantas’s new Perth-Paris route. With the federal government soon to release its white paper on aviation, Hudson says that government regulation of the sector should focus on ensuring it remains sustainable. She said the Australian economy relies on domestic aviation, and that a weak domestic aviation market is not in anyone’s interest.

CORPORATES
QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, BONZA AVIATION PTY LTD

Bonza joins the scrapheap of airline failures

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: 15 : 3-Jul-24

Creditors of failed budget airline Bonza have voted 35-6 in favour of liquidating the carrier. Administrator Hall Chadwick has advised that they had received no offers for Bonza or its assets, despite an extensive sales campaign. The formal vote to liquidate the company will allow Bonza’s employees to access the federal government’s fair entitlements guarantee scheme. Unions note that the decision to liquidate will provide Bonza’s employees with much-needed certainty, given that they have not been paid since March.

CORPORATES
BONZA AVIATION PTY LTD, HALL CHADWICK AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Workers sacked after no offers made for Bonza

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: 17 : 12-Jun-24

Bonza’s administrator Hall Chadwick has advised that the failed airline’s entire workforce of 323 has been retrenched, while all future flights have been cancelled in order to give customers "certainty". Hall Chadwick partner Kathleen Vouris has revealed that the firm had received no offers for Bonza by the deadline of 7 June, although she said that a deal to sell the airline remains a possibility. Vouris also indicated that Bonza employees will not be able to access the federal government’s fair entitlements guarantee scheme until Hall Chadwick decides whether to liquidate the airline.

CORPORATES
BONZA AVIATION PTY LTD, HALL CHADWICK AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Virgin the most punctual airline

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: 17 : 22-May-24

Data from the Bureau of Infrastructure & Transport Research Economics shows that 81.4 per cent of Virgin Australia’s flights arrived on time in April. The private equity-backed airline had previously been placed last in the on-time performance data, and CEO Jayne Hrdlicka says it has been "intensely focused" on improving its performance. Meanwhile, 78.4 per cent of Qantas flights and 74.9 per cent of Jetstar flights arrived on time; a flight is considered to be on time if it arrives within 15 minutes of its scheduled arrival time. Failed budget carrier Bonza did not submit any performance data for April, having been placed in voluntary administration late in the month.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT, REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS. BUREAU OF INFRASTRUCTURE AND TRANSPORT RESEARCH ECONOMICS, VIRGIN AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, JETSTAR AIRLINES PTY LTD, BONZA AVIATION PTY LTD

Grounded: Bonza set to join long list of failed Australian airlines

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Original article by Elias Visontay
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 1-May-24

Hall Chadwick has been appointed as the voluntary administrator of budget airline Bonza, which has carried more than 750,000 passengers since it commenced operations in January 2023. Bonza’s fleet of Boeing 737 Max-8 aircraft was grounded on Monday after aircraft lessor AIP Capital moved to repossess them. While Bonza’s future is uncertain in a sector that is dominated by Qantas and Virgin Australia, it may join other failed airlines such as Ansett, Compass, Impulse and OzJet.

CORPORATES
BONZA, HALL CHADWICK AUSTRALIA PTY LTD

Surprise support for airline compo scheme

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: 15 : 30-Jan-24

Emirates president Tim Clark has expressed support for compensating Australian airline passengers for flight delays or cancellations. A compensation scheme for travellers is among the options that will be considered in the federal government’s aviation white paper. Clark contends that airlines should be held to account for putting their own financial interests ahead of those of their passengers. However, he cautions that the government must consult with the aviation industry regarding any such scheme.

CORPORATES
EMIRATES AIRLINES

Virgin, Bonza run fleet check as US grounds Max 9 planes

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Original article by Ayesha de Kretser
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 9-Jan-24

Aircraft giant Boeing has issued a statement expressing support for the US Federal Aviation Administration’s decision to temporarily ground its 737 Max 9 planes pending a safety inspection. The move followed a recent incident in which the door plug on a Max 9 operated by Alaskan Airlines blew out in mid-flight. No Australian airline operates the Max 9, although Virgin and Bonza have undertaken safety checks of their Max 8 fleets. Virgin ordered additional Max 8s in late 2023, while it expects to receive the first of 25 of the newer Max 10s in 2025.

CORPORATES
BOEING COMPANY, UNITED STATES. FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, VIRGIN AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, BONZA AVIATION PTY LTD

Two in five Australians had flight cancelled or delayed over 12 months, survey says

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Original article by Elias Visontay
The Guardian Australia – Page: Online : 19-Dec-23

Consumer advocate group Choice has used a submission to the federal government’s aviation green paper to call for increased protection for airline passengers, including compensation for delayed or cancelled flights. Choice has also released the findings of its research on the performance of Australia’s airlines. It found that 40 per cent of respondents had a flight cancelled or delayed in the year to October 2023; 63 per cent stated that they will given no reason for the flight’s failure to depart on schedule. Meanwhile, 20 per cent had to wait at least six months for a refund, and just 47 per cent received a refund within a month.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN CONSUMERS’ ASSOCIATION

Qantas worse than Jetstar for on-time performance in October

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Original article by Robyn Ironside
The Australian – Page: Online : 22-Nov-23

The latest on-time performance data for Australian airlines shows that just 66.6 per cent of Qantas’s domestic flights arrived within 15 minutes of their scheduled time in October. This compares with 68 per cent for its budget offshoot Jetstar. The QantasLink regional brand had the best on-time performance record, at 77.2 per cent; this was followed by Virgin Australia Regional Airlines (73.9 per cent) and Regional Express (73.5 per cent). Qantas cancelled 4.3 per cent of its scheduled flights during the month, which was also the worst performance of any airline. The data does not include low-cost carrier Bonza.

CORPORATES
QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, JETSTAR AIRLINES PTY LTD, QANTASLINK, VIRGIN AUSTRALIA REGIONAL AIRLINES PTY LTD, REGIONAL EXPRESS AIRLINES, REGIONAL EXPRESS HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX REX

Qantas flights detailed before Joyce sale

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Original article by Ayesha de Kretser
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 17 : 9-Nov-23

Documents filed in the Federal Court show that on 29 May Qantas provided the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission with the details of more than 18,000 flights it had cancelled. This was just three days before chairman Richard Goyder approved the sale of $17m worth of the airline’s shares by former CEO Alan Joyce. The ACCC has launched legal action alleging that Qantas had engaged in false, misleading or deceptive conduct by selling tickets for flights that it had already cancelled.

CORPORATES
QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED – ASX QAN, AUSTRALIAN COMPETITION AND CONSUMER COMMISSION