Olympic Holidays and Monarch Airlines have resolved a bitter dispute over commercial terms which saw the two firms cease working with each other for four years.
The fallout over a decision by Monarch to withdraw its supply of seats through Avro to the eastern Europe specialist operator culminated in a High Court case which began last October, brought by Olympic parent Travelworld Vacations.
After talks over a new deal collapsed, Monarch issued a deadline to Olympic for taking all references to Monarch flying off its website and wrote to trade partners to stress the airline would not be supplying the operator any seats that summer.
At the Institute of Travel and Tourism conference held in Venice in May 2011 the dispute saw Olympic managing director George Michalias publicly challenge the then-Monarch owner Fabio Mantegazza about the decision as he took questions after being interviewed on stage.
The two firms had not worked with each other since, and on October 27 last year a court case started in which Olympic accused Monarch of over-charging it £4.5 million for taxes, insurance and passenger fees over a period of six years from 2004.
However, following weeks of hearings Monarch and Olympic today released the following joint statement:
“Olympic Holidays and Monarch Airlines Limited are pleased to confirm that they have settled their differences on confidential terms and have agreed to resume the commercial relationship that they previously had for some 13 years and which both recognise was mutually positive and beneficial.”
A Monarch spokeswoman confirmed this meant that the two firms would return to trading as they had done before the row blew up in 2011 and that Monarch had started selling seats to Olympic again.
After the High Court case had started Monarch was sold by the Mantegazza’s to Greybull Capital, a deal which saved the airline from collapse.