New Monarch
I guess the subject of Monarch's re-brand as a mostly scheduled carrier, is in order to offer an alternative to the irritating selling habits of Ryanair and others. I happened to listen to the new senior exec's brief along these lines on UK Radio 4 yesterday.
It's one thing to be 'up-front' for fast and transparent on-line reservations costing, but they will need to match the up-market airlines for passenger handling as well. Today's huge number of regular travelers are better informed than the operators and media take them for. For the Media, an aeroplane has to be a 'Holiday Jet', or 'Jumbo'. More people move around by air for a hundred different reasons that don't involve simple categorisation any more.....and haven't done for a long time. If Monarch wants to improve on the LoCo experience, they would do well to simplify the customer's 'carry-on baggage' planning. The avoidance of checking in hold baggage is a big deal for many commuters and regulars these days, and when they take the trouble to match the IATA regs on dimensions and overhead locker weight limit for type, they need to know that it won't be snatched off them at the gate by an ill-informed traffic agent.
I always feel that fessing up to delays down to 'late arrival of inbound', is not enough. Stressed passengers deserve more detail in order to show that the traffic staff actually care, and have bothered to find out why. As for delays due to a 'technical problem'.....that's another lazy over-simplifation, guaranteed to irritate. We all know that airliners, unlike ships and trains, are flimsy bits of cleverly stressed tinwork, comprising a couple or four million listed replaceable parts, so think about it, and try to come up with something close to a rational explanation. It's quite simple to do this, and still put people's mind at rest. It just takes a bit of effort for a change. It's also becoming more important do do this in more than English. That means having a few language speakers on shift. For Monarch, or any other aspiring operator reckoning to take on the low cost competition, and based on a fair amount of personal experience, I reckon this would help. The idiom of the 1950s is over........passengers have come on a bit. Airports are places where for many, pleasures are hard to come by. Once you get to sit down on the right seat on the right aircraft, then that's half the battle over.....