Monarch back in profit under new ownership
Monarch has returned to profit in its first full year of trading after being rescued by Greybull Capital.
The group said today earnings before interest, tax and exceptionals are expected to reach at least £40 million in the year to October, compared with a loss of £90 million the previous year.
"This has been achieved despite serious challenges in some of our key markets in the Eastern Mediterranean," said group chief executive Andrew Swaffield.
"Our performance reflects the successful delivery of our turnaround plan, which has permanently removed £200 million in annual costs from the business, and the hard work of all our people.
“Monarch Group is now firmly on the path to sustainable profitability."
Monarch said the turnaround was achieved despite a ‘number of trading headwinds’, especially during the second half of the year.
These included the terror attacks in Tunisia, the Greek Eurozone crisis, weak trading in Turkey and Cyprus, and the impact of the European migrant crisis on bookings across the Eastern Mediterranean.
But it said at the same time it had benefited from ‘the success of the restructure, the tail wind of lower jet fuel prices and a Euro exchange rate which proved good value for UK tourists’.
Since Greybull took a 90% stake in the airline in October 2014, a radical overhaul of the group, has delivered net savings of around £100 million, with a further benefit of £30 million from lower jet fuel prices.
As at October 31 the group’s free cash had improved by £35 million.
Looking forward, the group said the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and affecting Sharm El-Sheikh have ‘shocked everyone’.
But it said despite these events, the outlook for this winter is good, although consumers are booking later than usual.
It said it hopes Sharm El-Sheikh will re-open early in the New Year but added: “It will take a while to rebuild the market.”
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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