British airline Monarch on growth path despite booking delays

By Sarah Young LONDON (Reuters) – Monarch (MONA.UL) expects demand for its holidays to continue to rise next year despite holidaymakers delaying travel decisions due to safety concerns, the British airline and travel group said on Monday. Privately owned Monarch expects annual adjusted profit (EBIT) of more than 40 million pounds ($60 million) for the year ended Oct. 31 after a turnaround plan helped the company recover from a 94 million pound loss the previous year. Monarch, which competes with the likes of Thomas Cook and TUI Group, said in a statement that further progress was expected this year and described the outlook for the winter as good. “We expect 2016 to be better than 2015,” Chief Executive Andrew Swaffield told reporters. The company’s financial recovery comes despite Monarch being forced to cancel flights and holiday programmes in Tunisia and Egypt this year after the British government raised security concerns following the attacks. Luton-based Monarch sells holidays and flights mainly to British holidaymakers travelling to countries such as Spain, Italy and France. Since being taken over by Greybull Capital in 2014, Monarch has focused on cutting costs by cutting staff and closing loss-making routes. Swaffield said the halt to holidays to the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh and the Islamist militant attacks in Paris, both last month, had led to customers booking their holidays later, consistent with what travel companies typically see after such incidents. “Initially there is a lack of bookings … and then people go back to normal but they are not booking as far in advance as they normally would,” he said. That was in line with what other airlines such as EasyJet have reported in relation to the attacks. Monarch said that with Tunisia and Egypt missing as destinations, its customers were booking flights to places such as the resort of Eilat in Israel, adding that mainland Spain and the Canary Islands were also popular. British airlines and travel companies are awaiting confirmation from the UK government that flights to Sharm al-Sheikh are safe again. Monarch has cancelled its programme there until January 6. (Edited by David Holmes)