To sum up, if jet 2 were a town it would be called stockport.
Be careful with your analogies. Stockport is actually a fairly affluent town.
Jet 2 has had it's fair share of tech delays lets be honest but when things go right (which is the overwhelming majority of the time for most airlines) there is not an awful lot of difference between them and Monarch. Monarch for it's part has an excellent engineering division, it has heritage and relatively good brand awareness in the UK.
But which is currently the strongest carrier? I'd probably say Jet2.
I was shouted down a few pages back for suggesting that Monarch's product is very similar these days to Easyjet. I still believe this to be the case. Easyjet are gradually raising the bar such as by trialling allocated seating, flexi fares and IFE on certain sectors. Meanwhile Monarch has come the other way and pretty much meets Easyjet. Again, not a dig at Monarch as I think the no-frills with add on's was necassary.....Crown Service would never have survived. As it is, Easyjet have also adopted the no-frills with add on's mantra.
Do I think Monarch should be going down the "Cities" road? They've operated MAN-BCN for a number of years but they've pretty much been the only operator on the route and BCN is a very leisure orientated destination which is Monarch's core competence. Indeed, Monarch actually does the leisure routes well. They don't particularly offer anything special or anything to particularly differentiate themselves but they do have brand recognition and, to an extent, a loyal customer base. They don't really have alot of brand awareness down route but with plenty of ex-pats, workers and second home owners in many of these destinations, it's not always needed.
Despite the economic turmoil people seem to be making sure hell freezes over before they sacrafice their main holiday and this should be helping in some way. But the amount of times people fly away on holiday is probably falling and yields are probably taking a battering too. Therefore in theory going down the Cities route where people 'need' to travel, who travel more frequently and tend to pay more for their ticket might not be a bad idea. But again Monarch needs a greater brand awareness and the ability to compete with flag carriers and the Easyjet's of the world.