[esselle]

Oh good grief.
Monarch failed to spot a fundamental shift in the market about 15 years ago and continued to offer a product that appealed to an ever shrinking audience.

Their finances were shaky before certain core markets were closed down by terrorism, and then currency topped it all off.

Blaming Brexit is simplistic frankly; they were probably not going to survive anyway.

[capetonianm]

I think Esselle states precisely the reason for Monarch’s demise. They failed to identify their specific market segment, trying to be a traditional family run operation and to be all things to all people.

Very admirable and idealistic but sadly in these times, it doesn’t work.

Other airlines survived the ‘challenges’ of impending Brexit, terrorism, temporary shifts in currency values, oil price fluctuations, and so on.

[FDOS_UK]

esselle and capetonianm

I agree what you say, but also there is an over supply of short haul seats and smaller companies may struggle as they do not have the economies of scale to scrape a margin.

The way the TATL market is going, it could endup the same way.

On the other hand, never let common sense and logic stand in the way of a good opportunity to blame the other side in your argument 😉

[AlanOrton1]

We’ve all read comment on here we disagree with but the drivel about Brexit are close to taking the biscuit.

Monarch was a weak airline in terms of its business model and fiscal performance. Regardless of industry there comes a time when the strong survive and the weak perish. Monarch’s time has sadly come and it certainly wasn’t the first time it was teetering on the brink.

[Tom Otley]

Monarch customers told to pay hotels or face eviction

[K1ngston]

Just making a very bad situation worse…. With the UK Government obliged to repatriate the people stranded with the death of Monarch, are they not obligated to sort out this too or is that IATA???

[Alan]

Looks like there will be 45 737-MAX8’s going cheap. Monarch were to start taking delivery of these from early 2018.

[FaroFlyer]

Has anyone experience of claiming on their insurance for this sort of situation?

I use Amex Platinum card insurance and they are telling me that I cannot claim on the travel insurance policy for any additional costs incurred. They tell me that this is a retail claim and I can only claim as a failed retail transaction. To make it more interesting they are insisting that I prove how much of my RT ticket was outbound FAO > BHX and how much was inbound BHX > FAO. My view is that, if it is a retail claim, then the retailer, Monarch, failed to fulfil the agreement to get me both ways. It is a bit like buying a suit from BHS just before it failed, and finding a major flaw in the jacket. Would they argue that the trousers are OK, so only pay half?

I also have an RT for December which will not be usable.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Tom Otley]

Interesting piece in The Sunday Times today

Revealed: Monarch owner’s secret deal with Boeing
Vulture fund propped up airline through offshore transaction with planes giant

“This time last year, when the CAA threatened to withdraw Monarch’s tour licence, the airline narrowly avoided collapse by orchestrating the £165m bailout, widely thought to have been funded with new cash from Greybull…..the bulk of the money came from Boeing, released via a complex sale-and-leaseback financing deal related to the value of a fleet of 737 Max planes that Monarch had ordered.

Amid a battle for orders between Boeing and Airbus, Monarch secured a cut-price deal for 30 new planes — which later rose to 45. The market value of the aircraft was greater than Monarch’s agreed price, so creating a paper profit.

Greybull was able to persuade Boeing to release more than £100m of this trapped equity as cash, pumping it into the airline through Petrol Jersey.”

[Flightlevel]

[quote quote=829878]Oh good grief.
Monarch failed to spot a fundamental shift in the market about 15 years ago and continued to offer a product that appealed to an ever shrinking audience.

Their finances were shaky before certain core markets were closed down by terrorism, and then currency topped it all off.

Blaming Brexit is simplistic frankly; they were probably not going to survive anyway.

[/quote]

Perfect description of their demise. They had a good long haul service and gave it up to compete with the many LCCs when longhaul and feeder business plan is already well proven, so sad they made bad decisions.

[Swissdiver]

The history of aviation reveals several exemples of collapsed airlines that had beed weakened by poor strategic decisions and could not cope with a certain adverse condition. In all the cases, the management claimed it was only because of that condition. Swissair is the first case that pops up in my head. 9/11 consequences were of course severe. Had the airline been properly managed (i.e. without unrealistic growth ambitions), it would still be flying today.

The second issue airlines are facing nowadays is the EU absolutism when it comes to free markets. I am certainly for free markets in general. But when the citizens’ interest is at stake, pragmatism is necessary. This is true for agriculture for instance, but also for transportation. Forcing an island such as Cyprus to let its airline going down was absurd. In addition, enforcement is inconsistant. The UK will just apply the rule, while I doubt very much Italy will with Alitalia. Finally, as others mentioned, contrasting the EU approach with the US where airlines are using and abusing Chapter 11 worsens the situation.

Monarch went down simply because it didn’t adapt to market changes and because of a price war that affected many players, including the two main ones. Had it been furthermore a non EU airline, it would be still flying…

[PhilipHart]

As a “chief remoaner” and former biz minister, Anna Soubry tells the House that Monarch collapse has “absolutely nothing” to do with Brexit.

[capetonianm]

Has the United Kingdom left the EU?
No.

Brexit has nothing to do with the woes of Monarch or any other airline, apart from the impact that it may have had on EUR/GBP RoE. The rest of the hysteria has simply created a self-fulfilling prophecy.

[Tom Otley]

The more details come out, the more you have to shake your head at the “clever” financing in all of this.

It’s a shame that all that intelligence couldn’t have been used to keep 2,000 people employed.

Greybull eyes profit from Monarch collapse

Private equity group in line to gain from airline’s failure, FT calculations show

[Author]

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