What Monarch Air's Bankruptcy Means for European Aviation
Skift Take
While there might be too many European airlines, Monarch's demise shouldn't necessarily be seen as being symptomatic of wider industry problems. Like Alitalia and Air Berlin before it, the UK-based airline and tour operator had plenty of self-inflicted wounds that were exacerbated by external issues.
Airlines don’t usually go bankrupt suddenly. Warning signs flash up often enough — be they internal or external — and when a collapse happens there are plenty of reasons.
That was true of Alitalia, Air Berlin and the same applies to Monarch. Anyone shocked at the 50-year old company’s demise just hadn’t been paying close enough attention.
None of this makes it any easier for the hundreds of thousands of passengers who have had their holidays curtailed or ruined, and also for the 1,858 employees who have lost their jobs. Just like the other European airlines that have bitten the dust this year, Monarch was the victim of both its own mistakes and broader industry-wide problems.
A Long Struggle
Falling into the red wasn’t unusual at Monarch. The company made multi-million dollar losses in five out of the last 10 years, including an eye-watering pre-tax loss of $395 million (£297.9 million) in its most recent set of accounts to the year ending October 31, 2016.
This was not a company in great health. Tired of bailing the company out, the Swiss-Italian Mantegazza family, which had launched the business, decided to sell, with secretive investment firm Greybull Capital emerging as the new owners in October 2014.
They agreed on a $166 million (£125 mill
