Monarch comes under fire from passengers after scrapping Gatwick-Granada flights

Monarch has defended its decision to scrap its Gatwick-Granada flights earlier this month after receiving a petition from 630 “angry” passengers.

The passengers say they do not accept the flights suffered from low passenger demand and have sent their ‘Save our Granada to Gatwick Flights’ petition to the airline’s bosses.

Petition founder, Jo Chipchase, said: “We seek truthful answers from Monarch as to why it terminated the Granada-Gatwick route at a time when tourism and skiing in Granada are both growing.”

She said the petition signees include senior cabin crew, Silver and Gold Vantage Card holders, tourist industry personnel and frequent flyers.

“Monarch reports an average load factor for scheduled flights of 83.2% – a figure published on November 2. Based on what we have all witnessed as passengers, we do not believe that the Granada-Gatwick flight had a load factor under that figure.

“The overriding feeling amongst signees is that they have been ‘short changed’ by Monarch, which goes against its position as Britain’s most popular leisure airline and ‘Best Scheduled Airline’ – a position that would infer, one would imagine, some sort of concern for loyal customers.”

Responding to the passengers concerns, Monarch said the decision to withdraw the service from November 4 was “not taken lightly”.

“Monarch’s services between the UK and Granada launched in May 2005 with a daily afternoon flight. The number of passengers initially travelling on the route however did not support seven flights a week and in an attempt to improve load factors, the frequency of flights was cut to four per week,” said a spokeswoman.

“Over the past two years, the departure time and frequency of flights have been adjusted to help stimulate sales on the route, however levels have not risen to an acceptable level and the continuation of the route has now proven to be commercially unviable for the airline.”

She said the airline enjoys average season load factors of 87%, 82% and 86% for Summer 2006, Winter 2006/2007 and Summer 2007 for its Gatwick to Malaga flights.

But Granada has struggled with average season load factors of 76%, 70% and 74% respectively.

In addition, average yields are lower on Granada services, with sales decreasing significantly if fares are raised.

Average yields have been 12%, 14% and 19% behind those for Malaga flights, said the airline.

“Monarch appreciates that the withdrawal of the Granada service will cause inconvenience to travellers from the region, however the poor load factors and decreasing yields on the route can not be sustained and support Monarch’s decision to withdraw services.”

By Bev Fearis