The CAAs job shouldnot be to make a point. Millions should not be wasted to make a point. It's vital money that should be spent wisely. As a country we are lucky to have the protection and therefore every effort should be made to protect the money in the pot.

I have everything crossed for Monarch. However we had the Sunday night saga and today there seem to be aircraft joining those already on standby. Did any of the charters go back after being stood down or am I correct in thinking that most are still in Europe and have been joined by English airlines today?

Reluctantly, I think we should all be prepared for the worst.

The CAA clearly cannot win. If an airline folds (heavens forbid), leaving thousands of passengers stranded abroad and repatriation aircraft are not readily available to act fast, the CAA would be in the firing line for mismanaging the situation and failing to deliver on its ATOL duty. I don't think it has anything to do with the CAA flexing its muscles. Personally, I feel encouraged that the CAA has taken a proactive approach on this, in an effort meet one of its primary purposes; to protect consumers.

From my reliable source the CAA are trying to make a point with Monarch but more likely Greybull and unfortunately Monarch is caught in the middle.

Given the worry that ?Monarch is putting its customers through (and staff), it clearly couldn't give a monkeys .

I can't see why it takes this long to get an extension

I should imagine the investors are trying to get away with pumping as little money in as possible. GreyBull will have lots of cash in the bank however will likely want to risk as little of that as possible. Perhaps they know something we don't.

Bookings must be very low now - is deadline midnight ?

We have no idea of what is going on behind closed doors so yes Greybull and all parties involved obviously know lots we don't! My hunch is they will sell all or part of Monarch to a much larger investor who has long term ambitions for the airline. Greybull were only ever in it short term.

Actually booking are holding up!

FANS - On the new Luton to Stockholm route, there was a pop-up which said "0 bookings made in the last 6 days', which has now disappeared. Extreme, but indicative of the network as a whole?

Tweets from MON have changed tone in last 15 mins. Now stopped saying all operating as normal to replies such as "we'll update you as soon as we can" and "we'll DM you". They need to clear this up fast.

If this airline does go down the pan I think it will be partly because of social media and press speculation. Even if things don't go t**s up for ZB, please consider what all the speculation etc is doing to forward bookings.

Some on this site and other would seem to be pleased if and when ZB fail, I can't imagine why. Please think of the staff, customers and everyone this will have a knoc-on effect on if ZB fail.

Well said!

I couldn't agree more.

I disagree that it's social media that's caused it. Monarch has been terminally ill for a long time. It's currently having its dressings changed for the Nth time. Wether it survives or not is anyone's guess.

There's never smoke without fire. Sunday night's incident was not a fleet of cruise or hajj charters positioning into place that caused the problem. It was symptomatic of the problems at MON. Before the days of social media people would be blissfully unaware. Now is a time for planning next years holiday. Hard working families could potentially be risking thousands of their hard earned pounds and could be throwing them down the drain. The working man and woman is responsible only to their families and their bank accounts, not the employees or shareholders in Greybull.

Let's not forget Phill was saying that all was hunky dory the day before XL went bust. And didn't he then go on to front several other travel firms that went under taking thousands of hard working people's money with them?

https://www.theguardian.com/business...ckage-holidays


"Luton-based airline has until midnight to show it has enough funds to keep flying for three months, a condition of Atol award"

Sadly the simple truth is my friends who work at Monarch are expecting to hear any news from Social media first before anything officially internally.

No they haven't. Stock answer is still "we will announce details as soon as we can, but please be assured flights are operating as normal" or "We will update customers as soon as we can, and all of our flights are running as normal".

'there's no smoke without fire'

Doesn't mean that people on this board should fuel that fire though, after all, we are all in the same industry. Whatever happened to having each others backs?

Twitter team just replied to someone saying Manchester to dalaman on Monday has 78 spare seats.

I know turkey hasn't been selling but speaking to crew from another airline there flights have been going out nearly full.

Just hope this is a one off and other flights are full