Urgent protest action required...Monarch Flights, Gatwick-Granada

I have just received notification that Monarch are removing their Gatwick Granada service, effective November 3rd. They say its down to lack of support...The removal of this service means that Malaga is now the only viable alternate...With Malaga about to start a major reconstruction programme, its really not an optionsince the airport is at at saturation point already. The Ryanair service from Stansted to Granada is just about OK if you live north of the Thames but due to its early departure time is not an alternate for people in Kent, Sussex, Surrey Hamphire etc . The rail link from London Liverpool Street doesnt start early enough so an overnight  stay is necessary.
So come on people...
Get in touch with Monarch and see if we cannot reverse their decision. I have emailed them suggesting that if load factors are a problem then maybe they should reduce the servixce rather than cancel it..  But I dont think load factors come into it. My wife uses the service regularly and reports that the service is normally at least 95% full.

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Hi foxbat

This is always a concern with cut price flights & indeed any flights we rely on once we've bought into a certain area. We always fly out of Bristol as it's a 20 minute taxi ride. We can really only use EasyJet. We prefer to fly to Murcia but do fly to Alicante. Our place is mid distance but Murcia timings are preferable. When we went to book for early November we saw EasyJet are only flying into Murcia on alternate days only, now it's winter, can't recall them doing that last winter though. So, it's Alicante this coming trip. Oh well, it'll mean we can take advantage of the airport's much better "duty free" (Yes I know it's not called Duty Free anymore but I can't think of what it is now called. ) & carry bottles in our hand baggage which frees up cases.

I sympathise with you but  think pleas will fall on deaf ears. Good luck though.

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Sorry about that Foxbat.

We have very limited flights to very limited areas too.

That was why we chose the CB. It's the only place we can fly to fairly easily.

Flying from Exeter is poor because the taxes are horrendously high so we end up with Easyjet from Bristol too.

It's nearly 2 hours drive though, which is a nightmare on a 6am or 7am flight out.

Perhaps you could consider other airports too Foxbat?

Laury

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Hi all

I'm cheesed off about this too and have just found a petition that's been started - please find the following link and sign it!

http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-our-granada-to-gatwick-flights.html

Thanks, Louise

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Many thanks for bringing this to my attention. Having put on my Victor Meldrew hat I contacted Monarch and received only a perfunctory customer services response.

This move by Monarch is incredibly short sighted and I strongly believe that their reasons for pulling out of Granada have little or nothing to do with load factors.

Its only a theory, but since they see themselves as a scheduled airline in competition not so much with Easyjet and Ryanair but the majors like BA and Iberia, just maybe  the plan is to reintroduce the service at higher fares either just before the current contract runs out or shortly thereafter.

They have a captive market for the South of England and Granada province so they are exploiting it to the max degree possible. As for being a low cost airline they never really were... their fares since July have been increasing steadily, particularly in the Granada -Gatwick direction.

There is something going on here that customers are not being told.

Maybe someone at Monarch should  just tell the truth.....Fat chance of that though...

 

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Hi Foxbat,

 

Have you tried flying to Almeria! not hthat far from Granada. Monarch, Easy Jet, Jet2, Ryan Air all use Almeria. Nice little airport next to motorway.

 

Chappie.

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Hi Foxbat,

 

Have you tried flying to Almeria! not hthat far from Granada. Monarch, Easy Jet, Jet2, Ryan Air all use Almeria. Nice little airport next to motorway.

 

Chappie.

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Blimey, Foxbat, you almost frightened me off replying - but not quite.

I concur completely with your sentiments, but actually there's no harm in signing a petition - I didn't start it, I don't know what effect, if any, it will have, but what's to lose?  With regard to Chappie's suggestions, the same applies for us - we live in Eastbourne and are buying a property in Cordoba province, just over the Malaga province border, so Almeria is of no use at all and Seville would be a couple of hours' journey. 

With regard to formal notification of the cessation of LGW-GRX flights, I emailed Monarch twice to question why all summer 08 routes had been displayed with the exception of Granada and eventually received an email on 21 September as follows:

Hi Louise

Again, apologies for the delay regarding Granada.  I have just checked and have been told we will not be flying the Gatwick/Granada route summer 2008.

If Malaga is your second choice please email me with your requirements and I will be pleased to work out a quote for you.

You can find the flight schedules on our website: www.flymonarch.com

Regards
Monarch Groups

Surely another carrier will take on this route?

Louise

This message was last edited by Felix on 10/24/2007.

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Louise' Felix, Hi,
Thanks for the reply!

Just trying to visualise the response if Southern suddenly decided to remove the Eastbourne- Victoria or SWT took away the Southampton- Waterloo  train service because of 'falling' passenger figures and then suggested that its OK because there are alternate routes from Brighton or Portsmouth!. (At least Southern or SWT would publicise the cancellation of services...)

Accountants and Statisticians are very adept at manipulating  figures to suit the needs of the moment. and that I'm sure is exactly whats going on here.

 I was a little suprised at the Customer Services reply to your emails ' I have just checked...etc; seems to suggest that not even they had been told about the service removal! So much for communications.

Nice to know the mushroom syndrome (keep 'em in the dark and feed them sh*t) is still active.

Seem to recall reading somewhere that Cordoba Airport is now looking for European services...this year, next year, sometime,  well Manana anyway...!

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Hi, Felix (Louise) and Chappie.
I'm foxbat's wife and I can tell you that he's not really Victor Meldrew, although sometimes he can sound awfully like him .

Chappie, thanks for your suggestion on Almeria as an  alternative.  It's not an option for us, but it was certainly worth checking out. - Thanks!

Felix, thanks for posting the petition link, despite foxbat's views on the way some companies disregard petitions (which I agree with), I still think we need to make our thoughts known on this matter anyway, and what better way to show Monarch that they are upsetting a great many people than via a petition?  And we did both sign it by the way and make our feelings known....

My personal view on Monarch's cancellation of this service is that there is something going on 'in the background' which Monarch have kept very much to themselves (thus the customer service people wouldn't have had a clue).  It wouldn't surprise me if Monarch didn't reinstate their Granada-Gatwick flights at a future date, saying that they were doing it 'to satisfy public demand', but at a highly inflated price, which they could 'justify' by saying that they had to cancel the service in the first place because costs outweighed profits.

Just my own thoughts on the subject......

It's a damn nuisance though.  I am a very regular traveller on this route (and a non-driver), so the cancellation will make things extremely difficult for me.

Nice to meet you


This message was last edited by summer70 on 10/24/2007.

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