First to ATNotts - I am not employed by Monarch
Secondly what I fail to understand regarding the current Monarch 'problem' is that a similar scenario happened this very time last year. The press speculation at the time centred very much upon the fact that Monarch had failed to appease the regulator in terms of the requisite financial standing to enter into the 2016/17 ATOL which at the time required a larger sum due to the fact that both holidays and some flights were ATOL protected.
Subsequently the regulator agreed that ATOL protection was not required (due to the Monarch Group financial standing) for flight only sales.
A 14 day extension was granted by the regulator for Greybull/Monarch to come up with the necessary financial proof. Shortly thereafter the Monarch CEO made a statement which, amongst other matters, provided two salient comments. Firstly that he would not allow the renewal to be a last minute thing (ie 30/09) and secondly he readily admitted that Monarch bookings had taken a severe knock particularly over the two week period of early October 2016.
Obviously the ATOL effects holiday purchases only however the public probably do not relate to this fact ....all they read is Monarch licence in jeopardy and the press reflect this fact in their releases/comments.
What I fail to understand therefore is why oh why do Greybull/Monarch CEO allow matters to get into this state and basically shoot themselves in the foot?