Monarch Airlines announces plans to double its fleet size
LOW cost airline, Monarch, which operates a significant number of services from Birmingham Airport, is to invest heavily in new aircraft and staff training. The move will double the size of the airline’s fleet by 2020.
Iain Rawlinson, Monarch’s executive chairman, said the move was designed to re-invigorate the airline’s commitment to superior customer service.
In a speech to the UK Aviation Club, Rawlinson highlighted the group’s pledge which will see all Monarch employees participate in an Olympics-inspired training programme to enhance customer service.
He also outlined plans for an extensive fleet renewal programme, intended to deliver 60 brand new aircraft to replace some existing aircraft and more than double its existing fleet by 2020.
The Luton-based group is currently in the final stages of a tender process with Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier to re-equip its short-haul fleet, delivering what could be the Europe’s youngest fleet by 2021 with an average age of three years.
Rawlinson said: “It is good to see other travel groups following Monarch’s lead on customer service. For over 50 years Monarch has believed that customers should feel that, after safety, their comfort is our first priority. This is why we have begun a programme to have all of our 3,000 employees undergo the Olympics-inspired World Host training programme that was used to train volunteers for the London 2012 Olympics.
“Our industry should be one where customers are valued and have choice. It should be an industry which is respected, safe, offers true value and where customers come first. Customers do not return if they’re treated as second class citizens.
“Our values revolve around the customer always coming first. We may have been modest in talking about it at Monarch but our renewed emphasis on this goal, across all our businesses, is quite deliberate. We see this as merely taking the DNA of the Monarch Group and putting it on show. It is part of a strategy where customers are valued and have choice, are respected, safe, offered true value and where customers come first.”
The company has pledged its future to Birmingham with the development of a new 110,000sq ft hanger. The new facility, due for completion before the end of the year, will create 150 new jobs with the potential for this to double once fully operational.
It will be the first UK hangar to have the capacity for Boeing 787 Dreamliner maintenance, with sufficient capacity for other wide body aircraft, such as Boeing 777, 747 and Airbus A350.
It will be large enough to accommodate two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft or 10 narrow-body aircraft and will contain a number of component-repair and back shops.
