Monarch Airlines goes into administration, CEO blames terror attacks in Egypt
Monarch Airlines has gone bust, and it’s CEO is blaming Egypt (in part): The UK-based airline ceased trading and its 300,000 future bookings for flights and holidays have been cancelled, the UK’s Civil Aviation Authority said, according to BBC. Monarch, which reported a loss of GBP 291 mn last year, was the UK’s fifth biggest and the country’s largest ever to collapse. CEO Andrew Swaffield blamed his company’s collapse on financial problems that followed terror attacks in Egypt and Tunisia, as well as the “decimation” of the market in Turkey, according to The Telegraph. BBC business correspondent Joe Lynam says “The terror attacks in Turkey and Egypt have deprived the airline of a large chunk of its annual revenues, and forced it to compete on heavily congested traditional routes to Spain and Greece… The short-haul market has been described as "horrendous" by senior aviation industry figures… Put simply, there are too many seats and not enough bums to put on them to make a profit for all major carriers.” The FT also has the story.