The Monarch Group has confirmed plans to invest in new aircraft and staff training to re-invigorate its commitment to superior customer service.
Executive chairman Iain Rawlinson (pictured) highlighted a pledge which will see all 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 new aircraft to replace some existing aircraft and more than double its existing fleet by 2020.
The group is 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 told the UK Aviation Club in London: “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 WorldHost 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 it is respected, safe, offers true value and where customers come first. Customers do not return if they’re treated as second-class citizens.”
Monarch’s leadership on this issue comes at a time when customers increasingly feel that travel companies do not deliver a satisfactory level of service.
Rawlinson said: “Our values revolve round 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.”