ANALYSIS: Monarch slots – when is a carrier not a carrier?

[In The News]

Collapsed Monarch Airlines' successful appeal on retention of airport slots hinged on a wrangle over the legal definition of 'air carrier', and whether the UK airline could still be considered as such despite its cessation of operations.

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British Airways owner IAG set to secure bulk of Monarch's Gatwick landing slots1

IAG is understood to have sealed a multi-million pound deal for Monarch's Gatwick airport take-off and landing slots CREDIT:  GARETH FULLER/PA

 

•  Bradley Gerrard 

27 NOVEMBER 2017 • 5:14PM

British Airways owner IAG is thought to have secured the majority of the Gatwick take-off and landing slots being sold by the administrators for fallen carrier Monarch. IAG, which also owns Iberia and Aer Lingus, is understood to have sealed a multi-million pound deal for the slots with KPMG, which took control of Monarch when it fell into administration in October. Willie Walsh, chief executive of IAG, said last month he was mulling a move to snap up the slots partly to help boost its fledgling low-cost airline Level and possibly Iberia Express too. The sale, first reported by the Press Association, will secure much-needed funds for KPMG with which to partially reimburse the fallen carrier’s creditors. Reports have put the value of Monarch’s Gatwick and Luton slots at £60m.

It emerged last week that Monarch had £466m of unsecured debt owed to passengers and businesses which was unlikely to be repaid. But former owners Greybull Capital and the Pension Protection Fund may get some of what they are owed out of Monarch’s £164m in secured debt, thanks in part to the sale of the Gatwick slots.

KPMG will also be able to sell Monarch’s Luton airport slots after the Court of Appeal overturned a High Court decision which had stripped the fallen carrier of the right to sell the assets. 

Other airlines had also been linked with the slots, including easyJet and Norwegian.Monarch’s collapse led to 1,858 workers being made redundant and the flights and holidays of about 860,000 people being cancelled. The repatriation by the Civil Aviation Authority cost £60m. IAG, KPMG, easyJet and Norwegian declined to comment.

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