New ‘fundamentally different' airline to launch Australia flights in 2026
Koala Airlines said its model is fundamentally different from previous entrants into the market.
The prospective airline follows the collapse of budget airline Bonza, which went into voluntary administration after just over a year of operation.
'We're not trying to be Qantas or Virgin – our model is fundamentally different, and that's why we've attracted the backing we have,' Koala's founding CEO Bill Astling told The Australian Financial Review.
'We've deliberately kept a low profile – not because we're stalling, but because we're building something with a long-term, sustainable foundation. We've learned from the past – both ours and the industry's – and we're taking a disciplined, strategic approach.
'We're on track to start operations late next year. But we're not in the business of giving our competitors a 12-month head start.'
In 2019, Koala Airlines acquired Desert Air Safaris, an air tours and charter flights company that operated for over 50 years throughout Australia, Papua New Guinea and the Pacific Islands.
The airline's website said: 'With a rich heritage to build on, our focus is clear: we aim to distinguish ourselves by our new initiatives and innovations that complement rather than compete with established norms.'
However, Koala does not yet have a fleet of planes for the domestic aviation market and has not disclosed details of its flight paths.
Bonza, which similarly marketed itself as a competitor to Qantas and Virgin, was the first budget airline to launch in Australia since 2007. It cited aircraft shortages and a lack of access to Sydney airport among the reasons for its collapse.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
21 minutes ago
- Reuters
Lucra Taps Autosana to Turbocharge QA with AI
NEW YORK, NY, August 5, 2025 (EZ Newswire) -- Lucra, opens new tab, the leading provider of social gamification technology, today announced a strategic partnership with Autosana, opens new tab, a platform for AI-powered UI testing, as part of Lucra's broader efforts to integrate AI thoughtfully and selectively across its product development pipeline. Initial results from the pilot are already driving meaningful impact: Lucra has significantly reduced the manual workload required to validate product releases—freeing up engineering and quality assurance resources while increasing overall test coverage. 'With over 15 years in mobile development, I've seen firsthand how painful and time-consuming UI testing can be—especially for end-to-end flows,' said Michael Schmidt, CTO of Lucra. 'Autosana is a game changer. It's the first solution I've used that makes robust, automated UI testing truly accessible. We were able to automate the majority of our regression suite in a matter of hours instead of weeks or months, and the self-healing capabilities mean we spend far less time maintaining brittle tests. It's saved our team countless hours already and fundamentally changed how we approach QA.' Lucra's current regression suite includes over 250 manual test steps, requiring 1–2 hours of effort for each full run. In under 15 hours of work, the team has already automated approximately 70% of these steps using natural language instructions. Compared to the months of setup required for traditional UI test scripting—work that previously consumed nearly a full-time engineer—the return on investment has been immediate. Autosana's self-healing architecture has eliminated the brittleness of legacy UI testing frameworks. As Lucra continues to expand test coverage, the QA team is now able to focus more on feature validation and bug identification—while overnight test cycles handle regression automatically. This partnership is part of Lucra's deliberate approach to AI—investing in purpose-built tools that deliver real operational value while continuing to build proprietary systems internally. By combining thoughtful external integrations with in-house innovation, Lucra remains committed to delivering best-in-class technology to its partners and users. About Lucra Lucra is the leading provider of social competition services, offering hospitality, entertainment, and media brands the ability to natively integrate competitive gameplay into their digital platforms. Clients like Five Iron Golf, Puttshack, Backyard Sports, Dave & Buster's, TouchTunes, and more use Lucra's white-label technology to power tournaments and challenges, build loyalty, and drive new revenue. Learn more at opens new tab. About Autosana Autosana is a cloud-based tool for mobile teams to run natural language end-to-end tests. Eradicates the need to write/maintain E2E tests and manual testing. Seamlessly integrates into your CI and GitHub, supports both iOS and Android, and is framework-agnostic (React Native, Flutter, Swift, etc). No code, no setup, just catching bugs before users do. Visit opens new tab. Media Contact Michael Maddingmichael@ ### SOURCE: Lucra Copyright 2025 EZ Newswire See release on EZ Newswire
The Sun
21 minutes ago
- The Sun
Now China enters supersonic passenger plane arm races with C949 jet that can fly from London to NYC in less than 3 hours
CHINA has thrown itself into the supersonic passenger jet race with its C949 plane that can zoom from London to New York in under three hours. The ultra-fast aircraft promises significantly less noise than the retired Concorde and 50 per cent further flight range. 4 4 4 Designed by China 's state-owned aircraft company Comac the aircraft is billed to reach 6,800 miles - a much further stretch than Concorde 's 4,500 mile capacity. This would allow the plane to fly non-stop from the UK to Malaysia. Meanwhile, the powerful jet is expected to fly 1.6 times faster than the speed of sound, allowing it to travel a staggering 11,000km at a time. This means it could fly from London to New York in less than three hours. The stealthy project also aims to reduce the sonic boom to 83.9 perceived level in decibels - equivalent to the sound of a hairdryer, according to the South China Morning Post. That is just one-twentieth of the Concorde's deafening boom. Concorde was blocked from taking overland flights following noise complaints, after civilians complained it was so loud it rattled windows and spooked livestock. Reducing the noise of the sonic boom could help it overcome regulatory barriers, and compete with rival projects from Nasa and Lockheed Martin. The aircraft, which is yet to make it off paper and onto tarmac, could advance China's role in the modern supersonic aviation industry. But, while plans were revealed in March, an official launch date isn't expected until 2049, Globe Trender reports. Before then the firm plans to unveil the C929 – a twin-aisle jet to rival Boeing's 787. And by 2039 it plans on rolling out a massive 400-seater C939 to compete with Boeing's 777X. While it's quieter than Concorde, it will fit just 28 to 48 passengers in its business class configuration - compared with the Nasa jet's 100-strong capacity. Boom 'son of Concorde' flies supersonic for first time The C949 will also blast slightly slower than its predecessor, which managed to top 1,450mph in its heyday. China's Aero Engine Corporation is separately developing a hypersonic jet, known as Nanqiang No 1, that may fly six times faster than the Concorde when it takes to the skies. The team first started working on the hypersonic jet in 2019, but are yet to make it go supersonic and reach speeds over Mach 1 (767mph). A supersonic jet is one that can travel faster than the speed of sound at Mach 1, while a hypersonic jet is specifically five times faster, at Mach 5. Why did Concorde fail? CONCORDE was the supersonic passenger jet considered the ultimate luxury in air travel. Air France and British Airways announced they would be retiring their fleet of Concorde planes on April 10, 2003. The plane had its first commercial flight on January 21, 1976, and was retired after 27 years of service and 50,000 flights. Several reasons led to the decision to retire Concorde. Air France and British Airways cited low passenger numbers and high maintenance costs. By the early noughties, the planes were outdated and expensive to run, despite being incredibly advanced when they were first introduced almost three decades previously. The 9/11 terrorist attack in 2001 majorly impacted passenger numbers, as people opted not to fly. Passenger numbers also fell after an Air France Concorde crashed just minutes after taking off from Paris in July 2000. The disaster killed all 109 people on board and four others on the ground. The plane ran over a small piece of metal on the runway, which burst a tyre and caused an engine to ignite. It was also the only aircraft in the British Airways fleet that required a flight engineer. Plans for C949 come as NASA's supersonic "Son of Concorde" plane inches ever closer to take-off. The X-59 jet will break the sound barrier when it flies - but won't produce a sonic boom, thanks to its unique design. When up and running, the aircraft will hurtle along at altitudes of at speeds of 937mph at 55,000 feet up. Nasa revealed it struck another milestone in the plane's journey toward the skies with crucial low-speed taxiing tests. The X-59 moved around purely under its own power for the first time at US Air Force Plant 42 on July 10. Taxiing is the final stage of ground tests before Nasa can take it up into the skies - and the maiden voyage is chalked for later this year.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Kmart is hit with bombshell claims it mislead customers about the horrific place it sourced clothing
Retail giant Kmart is facing accusations it misled customers on its ethical credentials by sourcing clothing supplies from factories in China with links to slave labour. An Australian-based Uyghur group has filed a lawsuit against the outlet in the Federal Court, seeking to gain documents so they can see whether it knowingly sourced stock from suppliers who used forced labour from those in the ethnic group. In its ethical sourcing statement, Kmart said it aimed to provide products that respected human rights according to its ethical sourcing code which committed to abiding by international standards, including guidelines set out in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The lawsuit filed by the Australian Uyghur Tangritagh Women's Association claims Kmart included on its 2024 and 2025 factory lists two suppliers with links to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. It said this region in China's west has been well- documented for 'systemic state-sponsored forced labour and other atrocities against Uyghur and other Turkic Muslim people '. The group wants proof from Kmart that it has abided by its ethical sourcing promises regarding these suppliers and whether its public statements have been misleading or deceptive. Kmart must ensure it is not profiting off forced labour in China, association president Ramila Chanisheff said. 'We're demanding answers from Kmart so we know whether its actions live up to its words about addressing forced labour risks in its supply chain,' she said. The retailer risks a legal claim that it breached Australian Consumer Law by misleading and deceptive conduct if documents show it had failed to monitor the risk of it using forced labour in its supply chain. Maurice Blackburn principal lawyer Jennifer Kanis said the firm was using this first-of-its-kind case to bring real accountability to Australian retailers. 'Kmart tells customers that it supports ethical sourcing and the protection of human rights - but we know there are credible links between two of its factories and suppliers and the use of Uyghur forced labour in Xinjiang,' Ms Kanis said. Human Rights Law Centre associate legal director Freya Dinshaw said the case highlighted the weaknesses in Australia's laws when members of the public are left to take companies to court on suspicions of modern slavery. Unlike the United States, Australia has not banned imports of products made in the Xinjiang region, instead opting for a transparency approach which requires businesses to report annually on their actions to identify and address slavery risks.
