Swaffield says sorry to agents for online portal problems
Monarch CEO Andrew Swaffield has apologised to the travel trade for ongoing problems with the online booking portal for its tour operator business.
Swaffield admitted the group had been ‘distracted by the turnaround’ of its business and had not properly focused on resolving the IT problems, which had been frequently highlighted by agents.
Monarch’s agent portal was launched last summer and brought together Cosmos Holidays, Avro and somewhere2stay into one website for the first time.
But agents complained that it didn’t work properly and many said they had given up using it altogether and switched to other brands.
Speaking to TravelMole today, Swaffield assured agents the issues would be resolved ‘within weeks’, admitting the problems had ‘almost certainly’ had an impact on bookings.
He said Monarch’s tour operating business had also suffered during the late summer and early autumn when the company’s restructure was taking place.
"We were not fully open for business and we lost out on a bit of trade business as a result," he said.
"Both of these issues will be gone for next year and we are confident that our tour operating business will grow," he said.
"Having said all of that, it’s still performing pretty well particularly in Spain and Egypt which have both seen some growth."
Announcing its half-year results today, Monarch said its tour operating business has seen ‘strong year-on-year growth in online bookings, offsetting some category weakness in high street sales’.
Swaffield pointed out that of Monarch’s 6.6 million customers, 5.8 million are flight only.
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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