Townsville Enterprise welcomes today’s announcement that Australia’s newly launched airline, BONZA, will introduce three new routes to the Townsville flight map. Flights from the Sunshine Coast, Toowoomba and Rockhampton to Townsville will go on sale in coming weeks and services will commence later this year.
The addition of 9 new services each week will be a significant shot in the arm for the local tourism industry, introducing an additional 87,000 new seats into the region each year and contributing a potential $55M to the local economy annually.
Townsville Enterprise CEO Claudia Brumme-Smith says that the introduction of BONZA to our aviation offering further strengthens our appeal as a destination and aligns strongly to our five-year aviation attraction strategy.
“Aviation connectivity is key for our region, it has a significant role in ensuring Townsville North Queensland is an attractive place to visit, work and live,” said Ms Brumme-Smith.
“We have now seen almost 400,000 new aviation seats announced into Townsville in the last 6 months, and each time a new route is introduced, or capacity is increased, we see benefit flow into our local businesses and our economy.”
“Our aviation attraction committee is working towards a five-year aviation attraction strategy. This strategy is focused on initially growing our domestic connectivity and building demand in key international markets to develop international routes in a couple of years.”
“Townsville has an incredible offering for airlines, our business diversity and our strong tourism experiences make us an attractive place to do business. Seeing these budget airlines supporting Townsville’s aviation growth is a signal that Townsville is being recognised for its potential.”
Today’s network announcement comes as the region continues to experience strong intrastate visitation particularly from Southeast Queensland markets over the past two years.
"These new aviation links will support what are already strong markets for our region - with the Sunshine Coast, Central Queensland, and the Darling Downs regions accounting for 15% of the total intrastate visitation, from a predominately inbound drive market," Ms Brumme-Smith said.
"These new flights make the ease of travel and the possibility of having a holiday in the North all the more simple and affordable.”
