The inside story behind Bonza’s collapse

Tim Jordan promised to revolutionise domestic travel in Australia after finally finding backers for his life’s ambition, Bonza. But following the budget carrier’s collapse into liquidation after less than 18 months, Adam Thorn asks whether the Englishman was right to trust its ultimate owners, 777 Partners.

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On Tuesday, 30 April 2024, at just 3am, Bonza’s 300 staff received an email from their CEO, Tim Jordan. “We have been informed this morning that effective 0300 today, all our aircraft have had repossession proceedings commenced by AIP Capital, the aircraft lessor,” it read. This was, it continued, a “surprise” to both the company and the airline’s Miami-based owners, 777 Partners. “As a consequence of this, all first-wave flights from all bases have been cancelled.” To be fair to Jordan, he was likely just as gobsmacked as his employees: the first inkling he and his senior team had of the repossessions was at just 11:51pm the day before, when they received a formal notice. While we don’t know exactly how the aircraft were wrestled out of their control, it would later emerge that the three 737 MAX planes sitting at Sunshine Coast Airport – Shazza, Bruce and Malc – were physically blocked from taxiing off by a large concrete slab and, incredibly, a tractor. 

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