Monarch Airlines, Monarch Holidays, First Aviation, Avro Ltd and Somewhere2stay have all entered administration with all future flights and holidays cancelled - KPMG has been appointed as administrator of the company while the CAA is organising repatriation for 110,000 passengers currently overseas.
Swaffield said in a message to Monarch’s 2,100 staff: “Millions of customers have flown and holidayed with Monarch over the last 50 years. I am so sorry that thousands now face a cancelled holiday or trip, possible delays getting home and huge inconvenience as a result of our failure.
“We are working with the joint administrators and the CAA to do everything we possibly can to help minimise disruption where we can, but are under no illusion as to the problems this will cause.
“And many suppliers will suffer hugely as a result of our insolvency – for which I am equally sorry.”
The statement also said that the “root cause” for its financial failure was “the closure, due to terrorism, of Sharm El-Sheikh and Tunisia and the decimation of Turkey”.
“Since 2015 we’ve seen yields collapse by a quarter, resulting in £160 million less revenue,” added Swaffield. “This has especially affected Spain and Portugal which is 80% of our business. This year the airline is carrying 14% more passengers than last year for £100 million less revenue.”
Monarch had appointed an aviation consulting firm to review its short-haul network, as well as looking at plans to transform itself into a long-haul airline.
“We decided to ask KPMG to run a sales process to see if anyone would be interested in taking on all or some of our short-haul operations or assets,” added Swaffield.
“This would have allowed us as Monarch to start long-haul flying in spring of 2018.
“Regrettably although there was considerable interest, there was no deliverable offer, and so we have run up to the September 30 Atol renewal deadline without a viable plan for the next 12 months and the CAA has understandably been unable to license us.”
