Monarch

[TheLocalYokel]

Possible Monarch UK regional expansion in summer 2012

Monarch Travel Group tour operations director, Hugh Morgan, said today that the group was considering an increase in regional flying next year.

They are looking at basing aircraft at Bristol, East Midlands and Newcastle airports in summer 2012.

He said it would be a big investment but they couldn't use a foreign carrier as 'people don't necessarily support it', so they would have to base aircraft at the airports mentioned.

It wasn't so many years ago that regional airports of all sizes in the UK saw a myriad of foreign carriers on charter flights, so I don't quite follow the argument.

 

[Aviador]

It will be great to see them more in the regions again. I always thought it was a mistake to shrink back to the main airports. All that has happened is other airlines have come in and plugged the gap. Jet2 being one of them.

 

[alphagolf]

Monarch announced that they have cancelled their order for the Boeing 787's and reconfirmed their plan to open up more UK bases as previously noted.

So Bristol may become a Monarch base, I would of thought they will need to make an announcement soon to get a foothold in the Summer 2012 market!

Lets just wait and see!

alphagolf

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I believe that BRS, NCL and EMA were the airports mentioned last March by a senior figure from Monarch as being looked at to become bases in 2012.

There are rumours of a significant announcement regarding CWL to be made on 19 September.

The reason this might be relevant is that the closure of the bmibaby CWL base was not announced until April so far as I remember so it is possible that Monarch might consider that a better bet for sun routes given the competition there next summer will be minimal.

A few weeks ago it was put about on aviation forums that CWL had had talks with Monarch but they had not gone well - Jet2 talks at CWL were also supposed to have foundered - and the CWL MD said publicly that he had offered Ryanair a deal that would beat anything they had at BRS but the airline declined.

Now, if the announcement on the 19th (assuming there's going to be an announcement) concerns a new carrier for CWL then Monarch or Flybe would seem the most likely candidates to take on the sun routes abandoned by bmibaby - unpromising initial negotiations can often later turn into deals.

I've heard no rumours lately that Monarch is to come to BRS but I have heard the CWL rumours from several sources.

 

[alphagolf]

In all honesty I think FlyBE with their smaller aircraft would be a better fit, Monarch would need to attract passengers from this english side of the bridge to make it work, i think they would struggle to fill a 180 seat A320/189 seat B738 without it!

I could be proved totally wrong, but thats my personal opinion!

I really hope that the 19th will bring good news for CWL!

On the flip side I would like to see Monarch in BRS to shake up the Easyjet/Ryanair monopoly, nothing wrong with another player joining in!

alphagolf

 

[TheLocalYokel]

I agree that Flybe has the right-sized aircraft for a network out of CWL along the lines of Exeter.

Monarch though would be able to fill a 320 on the main summer sun routes from CWL which is the one sector that airport has no problem with filling aircraft. There might not be enough of these routes for a base though, just aircraft operating from other bases.

I accept that Flybe would ideally want a mix of sun and city routes and Monarch taking the sun route plums wouldn't lie well with that aim.

This might seem a bit off topic but it's probably relevant in the sense that it will be either BRS or CWL if Monarch comes to the south-west corner of Britain. I can't see them being able to do many viable routes from Exeter or Newquay especially with Flybe well set at the former.

Good news for CWL of course might mean slightly less than good news for BRS if it leads to the loss of some of its Wales-based passengers.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

This link about Monarch's intentions originally appeared in the Humberside forum but I wondered if it might have relevance to BRS.

http://www.travelmole.com/news_feature. ... eg&region=

In summary the linked report says that Monarch will announce about 10 new scheduled routes within the next couple of weeks.

Although most will be winter sun destinations the company wishes to launch 'a proper ski programme' for the first time.

It also wants to expand its leisure destinations portfolio across the Mediteranean, including the addition of more traditional city leisure destinations.

The airline has been talking to 'several airports' and is looking for maximum incentive and route promotion support.

Monarch has recently added two A 320s to its fleet and is to grow from around 30 aircraft to a total of 40.

BRS was an airport specifically mentioned by Monarch a year or so ago. The airport has a ski programme that is one of the largest of any regional airport in the country. Of course, it might be approaching 'maxed out' but the huge base for this type of operation suggests that it would be worth a serious look for further expansion.

As to city routes and Mediterranaean routes, although easyJet and Ryanair provide substantial coverage there are undoubted gaps and with this I'm primarily looking to the summer or year-round.

Finally, BRS has a reputation for not holding back on incentives (perfectly legal ones of course) and promotions if it believes in something.