Goodbye, Bonza airlines, you were taken from us too soon. Thank you for saying g’day even when my flight was delayed

‘Thank you, Bonza, for including those of us who don’t live in a capital city. And at a good price’ Photograph: Southern Lightscapes-Australia/PR IMAGE

Bye bye Bonza. I will miss you. As someone who lives in regional New South Wales and has family in country Victoria, I am mourning the loss of the only direct Gold Coast to Albury flight. I’m also sad I did not get a chance to fly from Gold Coast to Darwin, a route I’m astonished no other airline offers.

In case you’re not yet in the know, Bonza airline has gone belly-up. Not literally, though I did have a very rough Bonza landing at Albury airport just before Christmas – I think the pilot thought the tarmac was a couple of metres lower than it was – but the plane was upright once we came to a hastier-than-usual stop.