The private equity owner of collapsed Monarch said it was grounded by a “bloody hurricane” of problems as it counted the multi-million pound cost of its collapse.
Describing the European short-haul market as a “bloodbath,” Marc Meyohas, founder of Greybull Capital, blamed a perfect storm of sterling’s weakness, terrorism in the Middle East and Brexit for the failure of the airline.
In his first comments since the airline went into administration in the early hours of Monday morning, the Greybull boss admitted to The Daily Telegraph that the airline’s relatively small size meant it was unable to stem losses when hit by “pretty large headwinds”.
Greybull, which apologised for Monarch’s collapse, said that its failure was the result of the closure of popular routes to Egypt and Turkey because of terrorist attacks, and an increase in costs due to sterling’s weakness.
In an email to all staff at 3.26am on Monday, Monarch chief executive -Andrew Swaffield explained why the airline was going into administration, pointing to £60 million of losses this year, and an expected £100 million-plus loss in 2018.
“This year the airline is carrying 14% more passengers than last year for £100 million less revenue. The root cause is the closure, due to terrorism, of Sharm-El-Sheikh and Tunisia and the decimation of Turkey,” Swaffield said.
Greybull is the airline’s largest secured creditor, owned around £150 million through a series of shareholder loans.
The Pension Protection Fund is also reported to be owed debts of £7.5 million as a result of a deal struck at the airline’s 2014 restructuring.