The future of budget airline bonza is in limbo with the struggling Queensland-based carrier cancelling all flights. The airline's boss has apologised entering into talks on the ongoing viability of the business.
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TVTranscript
00:00 Well we are here at the Sunshine Coast Airport which is Bonds' headquarters and where the
00:06 airline had its first ever flight in Australia last January to much fanfare and excitement
00:12 but this morning there's just shock and disbelief really among passengers, those who have flown
00:17 into the coast, those who are trying to fly out as well with the airline.
00:22 This airline has released a statement this morning, CEO Tim Jordan saying that they had
00:28 to temporarily suspend all of their services across the country as discussions are underway
00:33 regarding the ongoing viability of the business.
00:35 Now we understand passengers received text messages informing them that their flights
00:39 had been cancelled but many had arrived at the airport already and were just basically
00:44 arrived to see that their flight had been cancelled on the big screen.
00:46 We spoke to a few, here's what they've had to say.
00:48 I got up at four o'clock in the morning, a friend had come down from Zippy Downs to pick
00:52 me up and come up here and then the last minute it was cancelled.
00:58 I'm a bit frustrated as well because we're just having a holiday and going back home
01:02 because I have work tomorrow so we need to find other ways to go back to Rockhampton.
01:09 This is actually the first time and it will be the last time that I'll be flying with
01:13 Bonds.
01:14 As I mentioned earlier this is Bonds' main headquarters, we were on the other side of
01:17 the airport before and we were watching as the ground crew brought one of the planes
01:22 in to park it alongside two of the others, that plane being called Shazza.
01:26 Of course the airline has made a name for itself as being an Aussie, true blue sort
01:32 of airline with unique names for its planes and trying to do things a bit differently,
01:36 shake up the airline industry.
01:39 But today there's a lot of uncertainty and particularly among the crew and the staff
01:44 that work for this company as well.
01:46 We'll be hearing from the unions we believe in a few hours just to see what their reaction
01:51 to all of this is.
01:53 It does employ a lot of people, particularly on the Sunshine Coast given that this is the
01:58 headquarters so we were feeling for the staff today just wondering what's going on because
02:02 it doesn't look good.
02:03 [BLANK_AUDIO]