Bonza is owned by Miami-based 777 Partners – an outfit better known for its recent and ongoing attempts to buy UK football club Everton, with interests in media and entertainment (777 owns a bunch of investments in soccer teams, including the A-League stalwarts Melbourne Victory), fintech, litigation finance, private credit, sustainability, insurance and aviation.

Bonza was meant to become a replica of Canadian budget airline Flair, in which 777 is the majority shareholder.

The problems besetting 777 reportedly stem from its reinsurance division, but a twisted financial tale has led to a New York insurance company taking possession of 777’s airline leasing company and 30 aircraft, including those operated by Bonza.

If Bonza ultimately fails, it may be able to blame its parent, and we may never know whether this aviation contender could have broken the pattern of challenger airlines being unable to get enough financial power to stay in the air.

A little more than a year in operation, Bonza wasn’t making money – but this was to be expected for a start-up.

Bonza’s strategy appeared to be opening regional routes that the two major airlines had ignored –presumably because the demand was insufficient to be profitable.

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Its strategy of selling very cheap tickets and running the business on a shoestring was not a new one.

Those with long memories will remember Compass Mark 1 and Mark 2. Compass Mark 1 collapsed on December 20, 1991, due to under-capitalisation, sustained fare discounting by its competitors, and failure to use its potential to carry freight.

Compass Mark 2, which lasted less than a year, was beset with financial skulduggery. Its chairman, Douglas Reid, was convicted of theft and false accounting amounting to $10 million in relation to the collapse.

And who could forget OzJet, the brainchild of Formula 1 entrepreneur Paul Stoddart? It was a business class-only airline that hit the Australian skies in 2005 and wanted to take on Qantas in the corporate market. It lasted about a year after realising that most companies were not prepared to pay for their staff to travel in luxury on short-haul domestic routes.

Regional Express has perhaps been the exception to the rule in Australian aviation. Formed from the ashes of two of Ansett’s regional subsidiaries more than 20 years ago, it has expanded into capital city routes in recent years with the backing of its Singaporean shareholders.

There will be plenty of teeth gnashing in the wake of Bonza’s troubles and thousands of travellers left in the lurch.

But starting up an airline in one of the least competitive markets in the world comes with plenty of well-established risks.