You have probably seen the news recently about the collapse of one of the biggest names in the travel industry. Yes, Monarch have ceased trading this week leaving thousands without jobs and 110,000 passengers stranded abroad.
Its a sad state of affairs when such a big company goes under due to financial struggles that they claim to be mostly down to terrorism and the capacity lost from closed destinations such as Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey. The chief executive Andrew Swaffield has said ‘Flights were being squeezed into a smaller number of destinations and a 25% reduction in ticket prices on our routes created a massive economic challenge for our short-haul network.’ He went on to say that he was devastated by the collapse but it would seem it was unavoidable with estimated losses for 2018 being well over £100 million.
The Civil Aviation authority are coming to the rescue over the coming days to repatriate all those affected by the flight cancellations and have already brought 12,000 holiday makers home.
But what of those of you who booked with Monarch and have not yet travelled? Well that will purely depend on where and how you booked your flight/holiday. If you booked yourself online you will need the help of ABTA (if you booked before December 2016) and/or your credit card provider to get your money back, if you didn’t pay by credit card and booked this year the chances are slim unfortunately. Clients booked through travel agents ‘should’ be well looked after and hopefully have already had their flights booked with another airline. Here at Cruise.co.uk we were rebooking clients through the early hours of Sunday night in anticipation of the collapse in order to beat the rush for flight seats, all of our clients are now rebooked and will travel unaffected.
Its not the first collapse we’ve seen and it seems to becoming more frequent these days but I think this one has rocked the industry as Monarch were one of the biggest 3 tour operators on the high street. Money is tighter than in previous years and many are choosing to ‘staycate’ instead of travelling over seas and there are those who are not travelling full stop with the threat of terror looming in the air pretty much everywhere you go….sadly i dont think they will be the last.