Following last night’s revelations of Monarch looking at restarting operations, more details have been revealed regarding funding and aircraft.
AviationSource first broke the story when @SPD_Travels on Twitter noted that the Monarch website had changed from its look in July 2023 to a plain white “Coming Soon” page.
As coverage broke out, more details were being revealed over many hours.
Monarch Secures Funding…
Information was being put out that the funding for the start-up of the new Monarch has been secured via an investor in Luxembourg.
AviationSource approached the airline for a response on this, to which this was confirmed by their spokesperson.
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Such funding from this investor in Luxembourg will no doubt help the airline in the initial setup phase of the carrier, which will include setting up it’s application for an Air Operator’s Certificate and much more moving forward.
As a result, more substance was coming behind from this, especially with the latest hesitancy and criticism from the industry surrounding the amount of carriers in the UK either starting up or restarting.
Secondhand Aircraft Will Be Leased…
The airline also did confirm to AviationSource that talks are currently underway with lessors for a secondhand fleet of aircraft for the new Monarch.
No indication into what type of aircraft will be featured in the fleet with this, but considering the ownership changed hands two days ago, this is still early to find this out.
It was also mentioned that after launching, the carrier would consider acquiring new fleet types over the years.
One interesting aspect to the fleet choice is that it will have to be aircraft that are compatible with Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF).
The spokesperson for the new Monarch also confirmed that they intend on having SAF as its primary fuel source for powering their aircraft.
This does back up what was said to AviationSource in the initial questions we sent over to them, in which the spokesperson said:
“The new company will focus on sustainable tourism as a USP”.
“We are aiming for the higher end of UK all-inclusive travel.
Where Are We Now: 12 Hours On…
It has been a hectic 12-hour period for such news on the carrier that previously went into bankruptcy back in 2017.
What we do know is the following:
- Ownership changed over from Jake Johnson Charles, who was listed as the director from January 2023-July 2023. It then changed over to Daniel Ellingham, who is the Chairman of the Board.
- Funding has been secured by a Luxembourg-based investor – Values and who the investor actually is is unknown at this time.
- Discussions on aircraft are underway.
- Sustainability is going to be a major focus.
- No Air Operator’s Certificate applied for currently – @SPD_Travels reports that the airline is aiming for this year for start of operations.
What remains clear is that if this becomes a reality, the UK holiday sector will slowly be surely returning to the pre-pandemic days.
More competition, but over-saturation of the market is present here, but if done right, Monarch could very well be destined for greatness once again.
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