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Former Monarch boss says demise was ‘inevitable’
The former managing director of Monarch Airlines, Tim Jeans, has said the company’s demise was ‘almost inevitable’.
Speaking on Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show on Monday lunchtime, Jeans said competition was tough when he was in charge of the airline for the six years up to January 2011 and things have become more difficult since then.
A massive repatriation effort is underway to bring back 110,000 customers who are currently overseas, after Monarch went into administration this morning.
Jeans said: "There were a number of competitors coming into the market, even 10 yeas ago, such as Vuelling, Jet2 and more recently, Norwegian.
"The competition was relentless and it was expanding. It was tough back when I was running Monarch, seven or eight years ago.
"You could rarely put a foot wrong. Even a long delay could cost a quarter of a million pounds. You didn’t need to make too many unforced errors to undermine the economics of the business.
"Average fares went down by as much as 20%. That’s really unsustainable when costs are going up. The market has just got more difficult."
Asked by Jeremy Vine whether he thought the writing had been on the wall for Monarch, he said the airline had not been helped by publicity surrounding it for the whole of last year.
"They went through this type of scrutiny a year ago and nearly went under a year ago," said Jeans.
"What has happened was almost inevitable."
Meanwhile, pilots’ union BALPA has expressed its sadness at the demise of Monarch.
General secretary Brian Strutton said: "We were hoping that the clear difficulties Monarch were in could have been resolved and the airline could continue trade.
"Sadly, that is not going to be the case."
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Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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