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Monarch is returning to the UK skies – but can it succeed?

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I was more than a little surprised to see the revival of UK airline Monarch in my social media feeds over the weekend.

It seems to be true though. A team is in place to return Monarch to the skies.

But does it stand a chance?

Monarch airline relaunching

It’s all about the brand

This is really a story about brands, and the power of brands.

If (and I don’t mean this unfairly) a team of people who had never run major UK airlines got together and announced they wanted to start one, competing with easyJet, Ryanair, Tui and Jet2, I’m not sure it would go very far.

However, buy the rights to the Monarch name and logo and suddenly, it seems, people are willing to take you seriously.

This is despite the fact that the original Monarch went bust in 2017, leaving behind substantial debts (The Times put these at £466 million yesterday) and requiring ‘the biggest ever peacetime repatriation’ by the Civil Aviation Authority to get 110,000 people home. Does the brand even come with a lot of goodwill behind it?

The new company is currently using the less-than-catchy ‘letsmonarch.co.uk’ (click here to see the holding page) with ‘flymonarchairlines.co.uk’ being used for emails.

Very little is known about what is planned

Funding has come ‘via an investor in Luxembourg’ which could mean anything, since most investment funds route money via Luxembourg holding companies for tax reasons.

It is reported that talks are underway with lessors for a fleet of second hand aircraft, but – with large backlogs for new short-haul aircraft from Airbus and Boeing – are there many spares sitting around? A separate report has suggested a potential fleet of 15 x A320 aircraft, which compares with the 35 aircraft operated by ‘old’ Monarch at the time of its demise.

‘Old’ Monarch was based at Luton Airport with additional operations from Gatwick, Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Birmingham. It would seem logical that any relaunch would follow a similar pattern, if only because the brand will be better known in the catchment area of those airports.

Airline Monarch to relaunch in 2024

Who is the target market?

It is reported that the new Monarch is going “premium”, targetting “the higher end of the UK all-inclusive market”. I suspect that ‘all-inclusive’ means ‘package’ and not ‘all you can eat and drink’.

This is the model which has worked well for Jet2, with a high proportion of seats sold via the in-house package holiday operation. Whilst Jet2 does sell ‘seat only’ tickets too, this is very much a mopping up exercise because every seat sold on its own means one less package to market.

easyJet is rapidly trying to catch up with Jet2’s success via easyJet Holidays.

Can you make this ‘premium’? What even is ‘premium’? On short-haul a lot is about schedule which needs peak hour slots. There is no value in a premium flight which lands too early or too late.

Fast track security and lounges are available at most airports already for those who want to pay. Offering more legroom throughout the aircraft has never worked as a model. Meals need to be very high quality before passengers appreciate them, even if free.

Who is behind it?

The man behind the relaunch is Daniel Ellingham.

His LinkedIn profile shows previous aviation experience as an ‘advisor’ to Austrian Airlines (2003-2005) and Swissair (1991-1999). His most recent role is given as a member of the Supervisory Board at hygiene services and commercial cleaning group PHS from 2013 to 2016.

The CEO of Monarch at the time of its bankruptcy, Andrew Swaffield, has just stood back from his role as CEO of Virgin Red, although this does not seem to be connected.

Let’s see ….

This is very much a work in progress, with the airline yet to apply for an Air Operator’s Certificate or indeed get its hands on any aircraft.

The market has moved on since 2017, with Jet2 in particular filling the gaps that Monarch left. Is there still enough space for a holiday-driven airline (with the inherent seasonality that brings) from UK regional airports? We will see.

If you want to know more, I recommend this article from Airways magazine which had the exclusive on the relaunch.

Category

General

Comments (80)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • BigDave says:
    22 Aug22 August 07:15

    Monarch was well liked in Gibraltar where it flew to Luton and Birmingham I think also.
    Routes which were not replaced since 2017 (well Wizz did have a Wizz to Luton until 2021 then pulled out during Covid times)

  • Mikeact says:
    22 Aug22 August 07:17

    As my daughter was one of those left in the lurch, and eventually repatriated when they went bust, I’m not sure that she, for one, and the thousands of others affected would be happy to give them another go….new operator or not.

    • Ryan says:
      22 Aug22 August 08:00

      Whilst I sympathise with your daughters plight, the resurrection of Thomas Cook is proof that if the price is right…

      • Mia says:
        22 Aug22 August 21:47

        Ye olde Brad Pitt £1,000,000 suggestion: all men and women and others have a price.

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      22 Aug22 August 09:09

      But to the rest of the population the debacle showed that even if the airline fell apart they would be brought back home so if anything it enables or encourages risky behaviour – eg monarch the cheapest? Well may as well book what’s the worst can happen…

      • BigDave says:
        22 Aug22 August 14:23

        When monarch went south I had a return flight booked Malaga to Birmingham, got offered a repatriation flight to Gatwick a week later (one way only) no hotel fees etc… Brought back home not the case in this case

  • Mike says:
    22 Aug22 August 07:21

    Rob, there is a huge market left homeless in the Independent Tour Operator B2B market. These were traditoonally brokered flights and these ITOs have been forced into buying bulk seats on LCCs that harm their own product.
    Also, perhaps more flippantly but I confidently predict the market will shift here, there is a large market for anyone over 5ft 10 who wants to feel their legs again after the flight, or to be able to use the tray table.

    • Tankmc says:
      22 Aug22 August 07:31

      Interesting point. Another market that may also be useful to them is the cruise market. That’s one of the few holiday types with a constant high commission rate. It’s growing; most depart outside the UK, and people like to buy a package with the cruise in case anything goes wrong with traveling to the ports.

    • Chris W says:
      22 Aug22 August 08:44

      Wouldn’t they have gone a deal with TUI or BA Holidays? I wouldn’t really describe TUI as an LCC.

      • Gordon says:
        22 Aug22 August 10:46

        Lounge access with a PE TUI flight booking.

      • Tankmc says:
        23 Aug23 August 09:14

        Tui own their own cruise company so competitors would I assume want an alternative. BA only fly from London.

      • Tankmc says:
        23 Aug23 August 09:14

        Tui own their own cruise company so competitors would I assume want an alternative. BA only fly from London.

  • Tankmc says:
    22 Aug22 August 07:27

    M

    Will it succeed? There is only one way it will, and that’s cost.

    These days, we’re conditioned to hunt for bargains. I believe the only way these will work is if they undercut the current competitors. Since we mostly act as our own travel agents now, we’re more inclined to shop around rather than just “accept what we’re given” like before.

    Moreover, what exactly constitutes the “upper end” of the market? I’d argue that the “upper end” is just as price-conscious as the lower end.

    • Rob says:
      22 Aug22 August 07:57

      In my (personal) experience, a lot is still driven by schedule. We did Jet2 last year because they had an AM flight and not a PM flight like BA.

      The other side of this is that ‘premium’ is about schedule as much as anything else. No point offering a ‘premium’ experience if you land in Croatia at midnight and lose a day of your trip (especially if you have a ‘premium’ expensive hotel booked).

      Jet2 is also ‘premium’ enough if you buy the front row seats and other add-ons, as is easyJet.

      • Peter K says:
        22 Aug22 August 08:19

        I agree that I’m definitely willing to pay more for better timed flights. The pricing on jet2 and easyJet suggest others are the same.

        • ChrisBCN says:
          22 Aug22 August 09:02

          Talking about schedules and better timed flights somewhat misses the point; a short haul aircraft needs to be running all day (eg 6am-11pm ish) to be cost competitive. This naturally means that some flights will have great times, some bad times. You can’t only run your planes between whatever you consider ‘nice’ times to be.

          • Rob says:
            22 Aug22 August 09:27

            Correct. But the ‘premium’ monikor doesn’t work if you’re landing in Palma in 2am, hence the positioning issue I think.

      • CamFlyer says:
        22 Aug22 August 09:21

        It doesn’t take much to be ‘premium’ over the more extreme LCCs. One experience on Jet2 was enough to convince me that it was worth paying slightly more than, e.g., FR.

        • Rob says:
          22 Aug22 August 09:25

          But it’s Jet2 they are competing against. Ryanair isn’t really a player in the bucket and spade holiday market.

      • AlanC says:
        22 Aug22 August 13:35

        We did Jet2 NCL to MLA this year. First package holiday in 20 years and was very impressed with all aspects of their operation. Huge numbers of helpful staff at both airports meant bags dropped and on to security in less than 5 minutes.

  • Mouse says:
    22 Aug22 August 07:48

    The only time I flew Monarch I had an eight hour delay on return from France. My EU261 claim was initially rejected but, to his credit, after writing to Andrew Swaffield to complain I got a cheque in the post a few days later.

  • Traumahawk007 says:
    22 Aug22 August 08:00

    We are really missing a semi business/premium class option on Euro & Costa routes.
    I think this would be a real winner as it’s just about cheap seats.

  • yorkieflyer says:
    22 Aug22 August 08:08

    I recall Richard Bransons famous comment “The quickest way to become a millionaire in the airline business is to start out as a billionaire.”

  • Ryan says:
    22 Aug22 August 08:13

    Agree scheduling is very important, but if travelling with kids, then the extra legroom aspect becomes a moot point, as many don’t allow kids in extra legroom seats. Eg. EasyJet.

    • Ken says:
      22 Aug22 August 09:11

      Don’t think anyone allows under 12 ( and sometimes under 14) in exit rows.
      This is CAA regs.

      • Dubious says:
        22 Aug22 August 11:56

        In which case, the seat pitch of regular seats rises in importance.

    • Chris L says:
      22 Aug22 August 16:54

      Strictly speaking, not all extra leg room seats are exit row seats. Easyjet allow kids in 1E and 1F. For BA I think it depends on the exact configuration but normally at least seats 1D-F are not deemed to be exit row seats. Monarch used to configure their short haul fleet with extra legroom in the first 10 or so rows. They won’t necessarily do the same again, but it was nice to have the option of more space on the longer routes.

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

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