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Monarch blocked from selling lucrative airport slots
A High Court has ruled that Monarch has no right to take off and landing slots, which the airline’s administrators had intended to sell to other carriers to raise money to pay off its creditors.
The adminstrators’ lawyers said the slots at UK airports were the failed airline’s most valuable asset. Several airlines, including easyJet, were interested in buying them.
However, a High Court ruled that Monarch, which ceased trading last month, had no right to the slots at Birmingham, Gatwick, Luton, Leeds-Bradford and Manchester airports for summer 2018.
The judges agreed with a decision by Airport Co-ordination Limited, which allocates take off and landing slots, not to allocate the airline any slots for next summer following its collapse.
They rejected Monarch’s claim that ACL was under a duty to allocate the summer 2018 slots to it ‘by reason of historical precedence’ and said they should be placed in the slot pool.
Lord Justice Gross said: "Whatever flexibility and discretion ACL enjoys in other circumstances to reserve (or postpone) a decision, it is no longer entitled to reserve its decision on the summer 2018 slots on the facts of this case.
"That would be to sterilise or distort part of the market, to the potential detriment of third parties, for an uncertain period of time."
The judges have adjourned a decision on whether to grant the administrators leave to appeal until making a full judgement on the case at a later date.
They also refused the administrators’ request for a ‘stay’ on their order in respect of Manchester and Birmingham airports, but granted one in relation to Gatwick and Luton until November 17, giving Monarch’s administrators just days to win permission to appeal.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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