Monarch Airlines

[User001]

New 2 weekly Dubrovnik from April 29th and extra flight to Gibraltar.

Given Easyjet announced MAN-DBV and LTN-ARN yesterday, 2 routes Monarch are starting next year, I wonder if there is so,e hunting going on between the,?

 

[ethanegcc]

I presume commas mean 'm' in the above!

I agree though!

 

[ethanegcc]

Just booked flights between Manchester and Preveza in October (22nd-25th). Cost £80 per person, overall, return. For Greece, great prices!

 

[ZB757]

Hello everyone! if you could spare 5 minutes of your time to fill out my dissertation survey on Monarch Airlines branding, would be much appreciated! questions are based on the public's perceptions since the change from charter to LCC. Many Thanks!!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1wrgqhKK0E0G-RwOMQ_fEx4288ltDV2FlREDKfR4gcrQ/edit

 

[David_itl]

135,000 extra seats on Monarch this winter.

https://bdaily.co.uk/industrials/06...ces-this-winter-with-135000-additional-seats/

 

[User001]

Monarch have confirmed Zagreb will be a year round route.

 

[ethanegcc]

Monarch have confirmed Zagreb will be a year round route.

Signifies a good start?

 

[User001]

The article suggested sales had a strong start.

 

[ethanegcc]

After the confirmation of year-round service, and the supposed strong start, the inaugural service to Zagreb is now within 24 hours. It is great news to have another capital served, and a new gateway to Croatia.

 

[User001]

Zagreb, Porto and Stockholm now bookable all winter.

 

[User001]

Just looking at flights to Palma in January and noticed Monarch now offer year round flights to the island. MAN seems to be the only base they do this from and don't ever remember seeing them do a winter flight before.

Palma seems to be a real hit ex-MAN, with now 3 carriers offering a year round route!

 

[Dobbo]

Err... I thought TCX and Jet2 had leased these? Unless the RAF plan to sack off all their tanking capacity?

View attachment 5762

 

[User001]

The rumour isn't true as Air Tanker only have 3 A330 available to lease, and TCX has 2 with Jet2 having the 3rd.

It started as a throw away comment by someone on pprune, who said it was a stop gap until the B787's arrive. Given monarch have no B787's on order, would be a long stop gap!

 

[Dobbo]

Incredible that someone would rehash this rumour...

Obviously there are fundamental issues with it, but Air Berlin's fleet is likely to be up for grabs in the coming months...

 

[Coathanger16]

As they say, there is no smoke without fire. Could it be true that Monarch are looking at acquiring A330(s), but just where from is wrong? Whilst Monarch no longer fly long haul, Jet2 are using the A330 within Europe. Has it been confirmed that Jet2 will be using the A330 again next year?

 

[User001]

Eurowings will likely grab that fleet, they already have some AB aircraft flying for them.

 

[IanFarquharson]

I have it on very good authority that Monarch will re-introduce Long Haul soon and the A330's will be a stop gap ahead of a potential new aircraft order (probably 788's)
I am banking on BHX being the main benefactor here

 

[Dobbo]

It's about time BHX squared off Orlando. Perhaps Monarch are the Ines to do that.

If accurate, it represents a big turnaround from the financial distress earlier this year.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

Okay so let's take it on the gospel truth that they will be acquiring the A330's. Let's also take it that they acquire a handful of A330's from Air Berlin but not the whole fleet.

Side Note: If they were to acquire the whole of Air Berlin's A330 fleet, at 17, that would put them ahead of Thomas Cook (6) TUI (11), even ahead of Norwegian, and slightly behind Virgin which was 37 aircraft in it's fleet.

So it acquires let's say 8 A330's for appeasement sakes. Where would these A330's be based would be my first question?
Manchester would probably be the first suggestion, very large and in some parts very affluent. Can offer some form of competition against Thomas cook to an extent and was where they operated from when they had the 2 sole A330's.
Birmingham would probably be next suggestion. Allows the airline to grow long haul into this airport and hopefully keeps Norwegian out of BHX, similar to TCX at MAN. Probably the only real sound suggestion however going in with 8 A330's into this market would probably be too much too soon.
London Gatwick is probably off the agenda. Already going up against VS and BA, TCX & TUI, Norwegians very large presence probably doesn't help in this situation. Yields are probably trashed on some routes, competition fierce on others (Caribbean, TUI, TCX, BA VS, America BA and DY) just generally a no go zone for an airline that give up the long haul and isn't really growing at LGW.
Luton - Don't see them adding long haul to this base.
Leeds/Bradford - Ha you've got to be kidding me. LBA Long haul. Also going Long haul in Jet2's back yard.

So then next is what would the route structure be? Caribbean, Florida, Long Haul holiday would be good bet. However they've retracted from the inclusive tour operator offering that they once had so that would require a substantial amount of investment from Monarch including setting up tour operators in the Caribbean. I would also predict that TCX/TOM have now taken this market by storm offering significantly improved on board products and both are well known. Monarch would be the new kid on the block with this sort of offering.

That then comes to the next market; long haul low cost. This could work, LAX, SFO, LAS, ORD, BOS, JFK, IAD, MIA/FLL, MCO would all probably work from BHX/MAN but where next?
India - DEL, BOM?
South Africa - CPT? JNB?
Thomas Cook/Virgin have most of the markets covered from MAN to America, the ME3 and the EU3 have Indian/South African markets covered.

There is very limited markets that Monarch could enter with the A330's apart from the BHX-US market; maybe MAN-US. Most other markets seem have what can be classed as traditionally 'Full service carriers' covering them with plenty of options.

TCX seem to have the 'Low cost' carrier presence MAN and doing well out of this hub. Norwegian seem to be doing alright out of London Gatwick. I just think that Monarch are heading into very dangerous territory (territory it once knew however the ball game has changed completely) that has led several great airlines to their demise. Monarch should stick to what they are doing at present, in my opinion, grow with the routes that they offer and into new markets previously untouched by Monarch and perhaps add a new base somewhere (SW England?) going into regional bases that easyJet won't touch.

On and to put the rumour to bed here is the latest article from Reuters.com:
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-air-berlin-lufthansa-timeline-idUSKCN1B90Y2

 

[Jerry]

If Monarch did acquire/lease a couple of A330s I'd imagine they would mix them between long and short haul.
At Gatwick an A330 could be used just for short haul to the Canaries and Turkey. Slots there are restricted so increasing seats using bigger aircraft may well be the way to go there.
At BHX they could use it mostly for long haul in a LCC model and maybe use it on some longer short haul routes. They could do something similar at MAN though they will have more competition.
They could also have 1 aircraft operating out of smaller regional airport's but being based at BHX. Airports like LBA or CWL or EDI may well be potential markets for long haul flights without using based aircraft.