Monarch Group has described its future plans as ‘exciting’, after agreeing a £125 million acquisition deal with Greybull Capital.
Greybull now owns 90% of the group, which will end its long-haul and charter flying by April 2015, concentrating instead on scheduled short-haul European routes.
The airline will focus on five UK airport bases: London Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Luton and Leeds-Bradford, and will close down operations from East Midlands from summer 2015.
Under Monarch’s strategic review and restructuring, which was a requirement to seal the transaction with Greybull, the airline has reduced its fleet from 42 to 34 aircraft and secured a new Boeing fleet order for 30 737 MAX 8 aircraft with deliveries from 2018 to 2020.
But the company has had to make 700 redundancies, remaining staff have seen reductions in their pay of up to 30% and there has been a restructuring of the company’s pensions deficit.
The remaining 10% of company shares have been passed to the group’s defined pension scheme and will ultimately go to the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
Monarch Group CEO Andrew Swaffield thanked staff at Monarch, saying: "Together we will be building a great future for the group".
He described the deal as ‘exciting’ and said: "We have a shared vision for the strategic direction and prospects for the business."
Outgoing owner, Fabio Mantegazza said: "We are very proud to have created one of the most loved aviation brands in the UK over the last 46 years.
"We think that now is an appropriate time to allow new shareholders to take Monarch into the future, with secure financial backing and clear strategic goals and we wish the Group every success."
Greybull partner Marc Meyohas said: "We see this as a long-term investment and hope we can be very supportive shareholders throughout Monarch’s next chapter."
The Civil Aviation Authority has renewed the group’s ATOL licence following the deal.
