Failure to launch for Monarch Airlines
The British carrier was due to be revived six years after its collapse
Efforts to revive one of the UK’s oldest airlines have stalled less than two weeks after they were announced.
In an interview published on 20 August, the newly appointed chairman of Monarch Airlines Limited, Daniel Ellingham, told US trade magazine Airways about plans to ‘launch a new and strong company for the UK tourism sector’ – although no air operator application had yet been made to the UK Civil Aviation Authority.
A media campaign and website were launched under the slogan ‘Let’s Monarch’, but on 31 August, a statement on letsmonarch.co.uk announced that it was putting its plans on hold. The board said:
“It is with immense regret that we announce today that we have been forced to put the brakes on our process to relaunch Monarch. This is not a decision that we have taken lightly, however since taking over the business two weeks ago we have drawn close to [exhausting] the startup funding provided to us far more rapidly than anticipated.
“We have been seeking alternative routes, such as partial divestment of share capital, and will continue to do so, however at the current stage there is no practical option to move forward in the immediate future.”
The website and social media accounts no longer seem to be active.
It’s more bad news for UK air travel, which this week has suffered enormous disruption due to a system failure at the National Air Traffic Services (NATS).
Monarch Airlines, one of the UK’s oldest, collapsed in 2017, leaving 110,000 Brits requiring repatriation. At its peak it carried six million passengers annually to 40 destinations.