Monarch cuts winter losses
Monarch says its turnaround is ‘firmly on track’ after it reduced half year losses by £40 million, more than forecast.
Losses for the November to April period were down from £110.6 million to £69.9 million this year.
The airline said £30 million of the reduction was due to its turnaround measures, designed to cut £200 million in annual costs.
These include restructuring its network and fleet, improving revenue management and modernising working practices.
The other £10 million was due to additional savings in fuel costs, it added.
CEO Andrew Swaffield thanked staff for their contribution, saying he was ‘impressed by their commitment’. Around 700 employees left the group last year as part of the major restructure.
"It is thanks to the hard work of all 2,800 colleagues employed directly by the company, both on the ground and in the air, that we are focused on service and safety whilst maintaining a low cost base," he said.
"These elements will help Monarch to build a sustainably profitable business."
Chief financial officer Barry Nightingale added: "We have seen stable booking trends throughout the last six months and have seen good summer sales in key months which will help us to deliver against a challenging plan.
"Improved revenue management has played a key part in the turnaround results but, additionally we have put a lot of work into segmenting our customer groups and have been able to take a customer centric approach to reshape our network around increased frequencies to our most popular destinations.
"We have also added new scheduled routes taken from our portfolio of destinations previously served as charter routes to provide a better service and increased flexibility to customers."
Nightingale, who has been with the airline since January, said the forward order book is looking good, even in the shoulder months, and prices have held up well.
"What’s really encouraging it that our customers are coming back to the new-look airline," he said.
Monarch said its tour operating business has seen ‘strong year-on-year growth in online bookings, offsetting some category weakness in high street sales’.
It said key markets in the Canaries and mainland Spain have grown in line with its scheduled operations to key city destinations.
"Packages to Egypt are seeing some recovery after an unsteady past two years. Greece continues to perform well, despite economic uncertainty and aggressive competition," it added.
Swaffield said problems with the online trade portal for the tour operating business had ‘almost certainly’ impacted business. See separate story.
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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