Monarch Airlines in Administration

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Fish

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Just as we've seen the debacle of Ryanair cancelling hundreds of flights another major airline adds to the misery as it has to cancel flights as it announces it has just gone into administration.

We all love bargains but are cheap flights sustainable?

And please don't turn this into a Brexit topic, the weak pound at times is just 1 factor of its failure as they take in mainly the British pound but costs, especially fuel is in dollars, but I'd have thought that was something they could address.

With the increase in security that we must have, and demand, cheap just doesn't work, it's not sustainable!
 
sawtooth said:
Terrorism and troubles abroad partly responsible, people not flying to places like Egypt and Turkey like they used to.
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OK, if there are too many empty seats on those flights on a regular basis then you remove those flights and cut your cloth to suit, you don't run them at losses, that's just basic business practice, airlines are no different to any company in that regard.
 
I'm not surprised, didn't they get a bailout a couple of years ago?

I feel for the staff losing their jobs and the punters who have paid their momey for flights for next year etc.
 
Fish said:
OK, if there are too many empty seats on those flights on a regular basis then you remove those flights and cut your cloth to suit, you don't run them at losses, that's just basic business practice, airlines are no different to any company in that regard.
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Not sure it’s that clear cut for airlines, they probably have very large fixed costs and need bums on seats to be profitable.

Maybe in time they could have cut their cloth accordingly but it was probably all a bit too sudden and too many negative things to deal with at once.
 
Fish said:
OK, if there are too many empty seats on those flights on a regular basis then you remove those flights and cut your cloth to suit, you don't run them at losses, that's just basic business practice, airlines are no different to any company in that regard.
Click to expand...

Removing the flights leaves you with aircraft on the ground and staff sat at home. Losing their profitable Tunisia and Egypt packages to terrorism made a huge dent in their trade.

As a budget airline it wasn't as budget as EasyJet and Jet2. I had a choice of EasyJet and Jet2 to Alicante or Monarch to Almeria, which is significantly closer to the house. I never flew Monarch as it was upwards of £300 more expensive for a couple. That £300 paid for the hire car...
 
Looks like I need new flights for my ski holiday in March!

At least we haven't booked the hotel as it means we will probably be flying to Salzburg now rather than Innsbruck.
 
Fish said:
OK, if there are too many empty seats on those flights on a regular basis then you remove those flights and cut your cloth to suit, you don't run them at losses, that's just basic business practice, airlines are no different to any company in that regard.
Click to expand...
However, if you've invested in enough aircraft to service a much bigger business & still have to pay for them when business drops off you're left with a problem you can't solve. Fixed costs v variable revenue.
 
Am just really gutted as we found the most wonderful holiday with Monarch this year - booked to go back next year and now the travel company has closed all is lost - the only other companies that fly there are all in the north of England and we are 10 mins from Gatwick - aagghh
 
110,000 folks currently overseas that flew Monarch, apparently govt will get those people back without holiday disruption, trouble lies for those still to go. Heard BA looking to acquire the Monarch fleet. Flew Monarch in June/July with family to Med, all the tour operators will have major headaches as well as the poor Monarch staff.
 
Brexit I think is just one of the factors involved in this.

Monarch were in an uncomfortable position in the market, neither cheap enough to compete with the budget operators nor prestigious enough to compete with the flag operators.

Monarch suffered when tour operators such as Thomson started to operate their own flights as these clashed with many of the routes that Monarch flies.

With the ever lowering cost of short hall holidays, many operators tied in with the likes of Easyjet as Monarch's holiday arm meant they were seen as competition.

Cannot underestimate the sudden and massive decline in the market for Turkish holidays. Both as an airline and a travel operator, Monarch were heavily invested in trips to Turkey. When the bottom dropped out of that market, Monarch were still obligated to provide flights despite being massively under booked.

Monarch were also struggling before Brexit.
 
Brexit is nowt to d with it... as you say, they were struggling before, they forward buy dollars for fuel so no Sterling issues and passenger numbers are up across the industry not down,

Don't mention it to Diane Abbott, but if it costs a pound to make it, selling it for 99p isn't sustainable. :D Her answer would probably involve insufficient diversity in the population of pilots! ;)
 
Nobody is saying it’s all down to brexit but one of the main reasons given for the failure is the weak pound which is a direct consequence of the brexit vote. Call it the last straw, another nail in the coffin, whatever, but don’t try and pretend it wasn’t a factor.
 
It could be but currencies fluctuate all the time. If your business model is dependent on a strong pound with no contingencies for it dropping then failure is coming sooner rather than later. The counter argument is that the strength of the pound in other times coupled with low fuel prices shpukd have allowed a build up in reserves to ride the storm.
 
The airline has been failing for a number if years and it was touch and go last year if it would get an operating license. Blaming our exit from the EU as a "main" reason boarders on poor approach to balanced reasoning.
 
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