Funny how the airline thrived in the pre-MBA era of leaders who had walked the walk, the last decade's crop of buzzword spouting experts have managed to drain all that hard work away whilst living in a vacuum of their own superiority.
Oh that's unfair, the travel business is a lot more complex now. People have way more options. Remember Adam Thompson's BCAL was close to closure at the end and bailed out by BA and Laker's return to the atlantic market was a failure as he flew ageing DC10s against 767s and A340s. Harry Goodman's Air Europe failed in spectacular fashion as they changed direction too quickly. Jet2 started in a different place, Monarch had a degree of "class" that Jet2 never tried to aim for, not a criticism. Jet2 also have Dart Group backing with deep pockets, something Monarch lost.
I know a lot of MBA's who I wouldn't trust to run a bath BUT I also know some incredibly talented and brilliant MBA's as well, they tend not to work in aviation for obvious reasons alas.
Am I right in saying that Thomas Cook Airlines is now the oldest UK Holiday Charter airline?
More scheduled now as well, but turned around after a torrid few years.