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Koala Airlines secures leases for three 737 MAXs
August 22nd 2025
Australia start-up, Koala Airlines, has confirmed leases for three 737 MAXs with deliveries in 2026 and scheduled services to start later in the year. Read More » The airline’s CEO, Bill Astling, told Australian Aviation "three is a good number, but we want to follow up fairly quickly after that to acquire another two or three jets. Obviously, we have to be viable, but also develop routes where there is demand for them". Koala will focus on tourists and leisure travellers and will not pursue a model of point-to-point travel as Bonza did. It plans to carve its own niche on major city and holiday destination routes, including the "Golden Triangle" of Sydney-Melbourne-Brisbane. Koala will not aim to compete with the major airlines on price, he said. Astling said Koala will have unique business strategies, including being a feeder airline for foreign tourists to see more of Australia. Koala has had "quite a lot of interest from foreign airlines" in this regard, he said. "We will not be a low-fare carrier. We are developing a balanced and sustainable approach. We don’t want to use other people’s money to build our business."
