Emerald Crown

[atuk]

On the fifth of April 1968 a new airline took to the skies with its inaugural flight from Luton to Madrid on a Bristol Britannia aircraft. Its name was Monarch Airlines sporting a yellow and black colour scheme with an M topped by crowns on the tail.

Formed as a subsidiary of Cosmos Tours to provide a seat supply for an ever expanding inclusive tour holiday business the airline went from strength to strength and added its first jet aircraft, three Boeing 720B, ex Northwest Airlines. In the early days most flights were from Luton however in 1974 Monarch operated from Birmingham to Calgary via Prestwick for a Solihull based travel agency. Monarch Britannia’s also popped up from time to time at Glasgow operating peak season flights for Thomson holidays or Ad Hoc charters.

As Cosmos expanded so did the airline adding ex Court Line BAC1-11’s for flights from Bristol as well as Luton. The 720s operated a Luton to St Lucia service on behalf of tour operator Pegasus whose European routes included Madrid, Munich and many Italian destinations. Cosmos initially used a Dan Air Comet based at Edinburgh then replaced it with a Monarch 720 as business prospered.

By the late 1970’s Boeing 737-200s joined the fleet with departures from Glasgow as well as Manchester and Luton. The popular Boeing 737-300 was added in the mid 1980s however Monarch introduced what was to become an industry icon and inclusive tour market game changer in 1983 - the Boeing 757. Powered by two Rolls Royce RB211-535 engines those aircraft carried up to 235 passengers and climbed like homesick angels. A refreshed colour scheme completed the new look for the airline.

At one point four 737-300’s were Glasgow based flying for Owners Abroad, Falcon, Enterprise, Wings/OSL and Thomson. Aircraft were not just UK based! Monarch obtained contracts from Neckerman and NUR from Berlin Tegel and with the reunification of East and West Germany formed EuroBerlin as a joint venture with Air France.

Meanwhile the 757s introduced long haul flying, albeit with fuel stops, to Orlando, Cancun, Acapulco, Puerto Plata, Goa, Mombasa, Trivandrum and a first from the UK; San Jose in Costa Rica. Short haul 737’s were kept active too. As the CAA eased restrictions on seat only sales Monarch was quick to grasp the nettle adding Crown Service from Luton to Malaga, Alicante, Mahon, Palma and Faro. Services were later expanded from Gatwick, Birmingham and Manchester too.

Monarch introduced wide bodied aircraft to its fleet buying four A300-600R aircraft for use on heavy density short and medium haul routes and well as long haul with a fuel stop. These aircraft were usually based at LGW and MAN but still visited GLA on occasions, usually on Orlando flights.
Egypt became a popular destination with flights to Sharm El Sheikh, Luxor, Aswan and Hurghada. Never one to shy away from new contracts and destinations Monarch worked with Hayes and Jarvis, Voyages Jules Verne and Renaissance Cruises operating to Egypt, Costa Rica, India, Damascus, as well as round the world air cruises visiting Easter Island amongst other exotic places.

The A300s were joined by two A330-200 and for a short time a DC10 and an ex Airtours 767-300: all operated from Glasgow to Florida as well as Cuba. Monarch also flew from ABZ to AGP, ALC and FAO for a couple of years.

The fleet utilisation was remarkable: a typical 757 would fly LGW-GVA-LGW followed by GOI on Saturday, returning Sunday for an evening MBA. Tuesday TFS then Wed LXR, Thursday ACE followed by TRV, then a Friday overnight TFS service. With ever expanding short haul services the airline turned to Airbus A320 and A321 aircraft while becoming the largest leisure airline at Birmingham with eleven based aircraft.

The good times sadly didn’t last. A shift from charter to scheduled services, competitor tour operators launching their own airlines: Airtours, Sunworld, Inspirations, all took their toll on the business and at one point during 2011 Monarch refused flying programmes from Olympic Holidays due to their unrealistic seat rates. Cosmos reduced its overall flying programmes reflecting the shift to seat only, property ownership and time share. Management changes failed to secure further profitability and the owners of Cosmos, the Mantegazzi family put Monarch up for sale as they no longer wished to inject further funding. A sale to the private equity company Greybull saw a shift from Airbus back to Boeing with an order for the737MAX but was not to be. Monarch collapsed in September 2017 months short of its half century.

A sad day indeed and an undeserved end for one of the UK’s best known and well loved companies which despite changing its image over the years refreshing black for purple then navy blue kept the yellow and crown logo to the very end.

[bill]

Cracking article and info there Ian.Thanks.
I had the pleasure of flying on their A300's a couple of times out of LGW when I lived in London. VRN was definitely one destination but I can't remember if we flew there twice or if the other destination was VCE.
Anyway, I do remember the crew being very good indeed and after some sort of cabin mix-up where I got seperated from the wife I left the aircraft with a big bag of miniatures as a thank you. At least, I would've if the wife remembered to tell me to collect them when we disembark.

[Ekally1]

Flew ZB A300 from MCO-BGR-GLA then onwards to LPL . Only handful of pax for LPL I noticed . There was 3 ZB's going to MCO from GLA that day

[atuk]

Thanks for your feedback chaps.

I first flew on Monarch from Gatwick to Luxor and back in 1992 then again in 2008 in their fortieth year from Edinburgh to Ibiza. I have a 40th anniversary collage given to me by their Route Planning manager which is hung in our hall opposite the Britannia Airways 737 painting kindly given to me by Amanda MacMillan.

I forgot to add two other MON flights. 06MAY89 from GLA-ALC-GLA with F/O Martin RoSt, a family friend, on the flight deck; a veritable aerial geography lesson, the weather was excellent all the way. Then again in NOV96 from GLA-LPA and back on an Airtours holiday when Captain Dave Giles flew us out and back. Dave will also be known to some on this forum. He was a Glasgow based and an instructor at West of Scotland Flying Club.

Happy days indeed.

[atuk]

And now Monarch planning a rebirth and return to Luton next summer!

If only they hadn’t ditched charter flying they may have still been here working for TUI!

[Ekally1]

Cant see this getting off the ground sadly to say

[PiperOne]

Being discussed elsewhere, this seems to involve Love Holidays, who are in the process of raising more capital. It appears to stem from the reduced availability of seats on certain lo-co carriers and a desire to control more of the product, a la Jet2 Holidays. They are currently bonded for 2.6m passengers this summer.

[Ekally1]

Its a venture by the team who tried and failed with the new flybe

[Clive]

Its a venture by the team who tried and failed with the new flybe

And similarly intent on replicating old fatal decisions apparently. Probably never get off the ground.

[bill]

Its a venture by the team who tried and failed with the new flybe

Oooft, no brainer then. How do I invest in such a winner?