The ‘Granada-Gatwick Petition Group’, a group of more than 630 customers, is urging Monarch Airlines to re-think its 4th November withdrawal of a seemingly popular Granada to London Gatwick route. The group argues that the route did not suffer from low passenger demand and should be re-instated, whilst the official stance from Monarch is that “demand has not met expectations”, even though passengers have reported that the flights have invariably been close to full.
The ‘Save our Granada to Gatwick Flights’ petition, which has so far collected more than 630 signees, was founded by Jo Chipchase, who argues: “We seek truthful answers from Monarch as to why it terminated the Granada-Gatwick route at a time when tourism and skiing in Granada are both growing. We wish to have the loyal custom conveyed upon Monarch during the last few years acknowledged with a response.”
The protesters include senior cabin crew, Silver and Gold Vantage Card holders, tourist industry personnel as well as frequent flyers. Jo Chipchase added: “The overriding feeling amongst signees is that they have been ‘short changed’ by Monarch, which goes against its position as Britain’s most popular leisure airline and ‘Best Scheduled Airline’ – a position that would infer, one would imagine, some sort of concern for loyal customers.”
A Monarch spokeswoman has said: "Monarch's services between the UK and Granada launched in May 2005 with a daily afternoon flight. The number of passengers initially travelling on the route however did not support seven flights a week and in an attempt to improve load factors, the frequency of flights was cut to four per week".
"Over the past two years, the departure time and frequency of flights have been adjusted to help stimulate sales on the route, however levels have not risen to an acceptable level and the continuation of the route has now proven to be commercially unviable for the airline...Monarch appreciates that the withdrawal of the Granada service will cause inconvenience to travellers from the region, however the poor load factors and decreasing yields on the route can not be sustained and support Monarch's decision to withdraw services."
Monarch can expect average load factors of 87%, 82% and 86% for summer 2006, Winter 2006/2007 and summer 2007 for its Gatwick - Malaga flights. However, Granada only managed average load factors 76%, 70% and 74% respectively. It is hoped by many of the signees that another low-cost airline, such as easyJet or Ryanair, will take over the route and once more offer cheap flights from Granada.
