Many leisure pax are also price contious and this will be seen as just another frill or expense.
I think this is partly the purpose of the whole re-branding though. Monarch wants to be the airline of frills, which people can choose to pay for if they wish. I agree with your assessment of travel extras. However, I do feel that wi-fi will be a great revenue earner.
The number of people these days that bring their own portable devices onto the aircraft is great. Many of these devices, including mobile phones, tablets, console players and laptops have the ability to connect to the internet using wireless technology. I don't know the extent to which this technology has advanced but there is great potential here.
Apart from Monarch being able to offer customers the opportunity to view its own services and products on a free-to-browse basis, there could be the ability for people to check their e-mails, browse the internet and effectively build their own in-flight entertainment if they wish to do so.
With many of Monarch's routes now falling in the 3-5 hour category, people want more to do on their flight than just read the in-flight magazine. Apart from the possibilities of in-flight entertainment, let's not forget that we are talking about one of the most captive audiences there is and so the opportunity for advertisers is also great.
Something that was not mentioned in the article was that Monarch is also looking at introducing handheld devices such as I-pads on long haul routes. One would assume this would be on a rental basis. Here, there also lies the potential for additional revenue without Monarch having to update its fleet with costly seat back entertainment systems which is something where it falls behind on compared to other long haul operators.
Of course, for those people who choose not to use the service then they can keep the cost of their travel experience as low as the price of their ticket. Monarch is however very much a leisure airline and when people go on their holidays, they often spend money on things they wouldn't do ordinarily. You only have to see how busy the pub can get in T1 Manchester airport before 9am of a weekend to know what I mean.
In my opinion, this is a smart move by an airline that is wise to take a step forward in its offering of in-flight entertainment.