Monarch Staff In Uniform

Just when we thought there couldn’t possibly be anything more to say about the airline industry, Monarch Airlines, who have been around for 50 years, announced their closure. Such longevity cannot be sneered at, thus the coverage of their demise has been respectful. So, what went wrong for the Monarch brand?

There are a few headline reasons … falling revenues and rising costs; increased competition in the short-haul market; and terror attacks in Egypt and Turkey. As an airline you can’t do much to control the cost of fuel, tax or terrorism but you can control the markets you move into. Monarch made a conscious decision to move away from long-haul into shorter routes across Spain and Portugal. They deliberately placed themselves amongst no-frills competitors and following the recent Ryanair debacle, we can’t help feeling that this move was always destined to fail.

The world is changing fast and sadly, Monarch, with their traditional values, appear to be the latest of an increasing list of brands, that failed to adapt to changing market conditions quickly enough.