Some industry press news, nothing new but doesn't mention easyJet as a potential!
Monarch Airlines (ZB, London Luton) is set to cut over 1'000 jobs while parking twelve of its 42 aircraft as further details of CEO Andrew Swaffield's radical restructuring plan are revealed.
Following on from last week's announcement that the airline will abandon its East Midlandsoperations effective April next year, Monarch has now alluded to ditching long-haul charter flights to India, the United States and the Caribbean in favour of a more regionally-oriented, budget carrier-esque business model. In tandem with its transformation from a charter carrier into a scheduled operator, Monarch will also renew its fleet of Airbus Industrie (AIB, Toulouse Blagnac) aircraft with a pending order for thirty B737 MAX 8s with Boeing (BOE, Chicago O'Hare).
Management is also in talks with the airline's pension fund trustees concerning a GBP158million (USD263.79million) deficit.
Britain's Sunday Times paper reports Monarch's billionaire owner, Sergio Mantegazza, has expressed a desire to offload a controlling stake under the right conditions and for the right price. US airline turnaround specialists, Seabury, are leading the hunt for new investors with Better Capital, HIG Europe, Towerbrook and Indigo LLC currently being courted. Monarch's board has reportedly approached Mantegazza for a GBP60million (USD102.2million) cash injection linked to the carrier's latest fleet renewal plan.
Overall, Monarch hopes the restructuring programme will render the airline appealing enough to land an investor before the end of the year.
Competitor Ryanair (FR, Dublin Int'l) has meanwhile announced to fill one of the gaps left by Monarch at East Midlands by launching a new twice weekly B737-800 service from the airport to Malta from summer 2015 and by adding additional frequencies to existing routes on which it is competing with Monarch now from the airport.