Chairman’s or a Piton cocktail with your picnic” JEAN-MARC FLAMBERT ON ST LUCIA’S JAZZ FESTIVAL
CHIEF EXECUTIVE EXIT
Clifford leaves Monarch Group for ‘other things’
MONARCH IS on the hunt for a new chief executive, after Conrad Clifford stepped down, despite being in the role for just over a year. Speaking to TTG, Monarch Group chairman Iain Rawlinson insisted that it had been Clifford’s decision to leave, after he announced he wanted to “do other things”. “We don’t know where he is going, but he said that he wanted to go and do other things, and we reached an agreement on him doing that,” Rawlinson said. Clifford joined the Monarch Group in December 2010 from Emirates, where he was vice-president for the UK and Ireland.
Rawlinson said that although
candidates from outside the travel industry would be considered, a successor with strong knowledge of the airline sector was preferred. “It is most likely that the candidate will have a strong airline background. The airline business is the only one that is not profitable at the moment – it is the largest division of our businesses, and we plan to return it to profitability within the next two years,” he said. “We need someone that can bring out the benefits of us being a unified travel group; that can look at areas of cooperation between the tour operator arm, the airline, and our engineering business, to give our company that strong and unique competitive position,” Rawlinson added. Rawlinson said the recruitment
process was “well advanced”, and it was hoped a replacement would be found in the second quarter of the financial year, “if not before”. Last year the company secured
Monarch needs to replace Conrad Clifford ATOL REFORM
‘Malev proves need for airline inclusion’
DEREK MOORE, the chairman of Aito, has questioned how many airlines must fail before the government brings them into the Atol scheme. “The government argues that it’s not necessary as airlines don’t go bust, but we can see that they do,” Moore said.
a £75 million cash injection from its Swiss-based owners the Mantegazza family after revealing losses of £45 million. “We want to get the airline back into profitability by the end of October 2013, and our current performance is in line with that plan,” Rawlinson said.
He said clarity was essential for consumers. “We want the public to understand when they are covered. It should be simple, clear and easy to understand. Flight equals protection. That should be the way,” he said.
The Department for Transport
indicated to TTGan announcement on Atol reform was likely this week.
■Budapest thanks airlines for filling the void; City & Finance, p13
JOIN THE TOUR: Over 100 agents braved the cold to join our TTG on Tour event in London on Monday, including (from left) Uniglobe TFT’s Anya Mihhailova, Constantinos Karaiskos, Simone Pond and Ann Bunning, who enjoyed plenty of food, drinks and fantastic prizes. Tonight we are in Exeter, and next week in Belfast, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Newcastle – join us there! Go to
ttgdigital.com/ontour
INTERNET BOOKINGS
Tui sees boom in website sales
CITY ANALYSTS have praised Tui’s online business strategy following its first-quarter results which showed a sharp rise in internet bookings. The group said online bookings in
January were up 19% for winter and 16% for summer compared with last year, with First Choice’s website attracting 45% more visits. Tui also revealed that its underlying operating loss increased by £23 million in the three months to the end of December 2011. It said this was mainly attributed to lower demand for north African destinations after the Arab Spring. Nick Batram, a travel and leisure
WIN ETIHAD’S INCENTIVE AND LIVE FOR FREE: Everybody is feeling the rise in living costs, but one lucky UK travel agent will instead be living entirely for free, with a new incentive from Etihad.
The airline will cover bills for rent
or mortgage, as well as utilities, trans- portation and groceries for a year.
TTGON TOUR
analyst at Peel Hunt, said that he expected north Africa to be “a difficult market for the operators” but was heartened by the growth in online business. “I’m still cautious and the economic backdrop means it is going to be difficult. [But] all in all I thought it was a pretty positive update,” he said. Wyn Ellis, from Numis Securities,
agreed. “[Tui] has embraced the internet much more aggressively and positively than Thomas Cook.” “[Cook] just hasn’t done as well; this is in part due to the fact that foreign exchange is much more important to it.”
■Cook to update the City on its trading; City & Finance, p12
Agents must register at
etihad.com/livefree and then earn points for bookings made during February.
All agents with a minimum of 12 points will go into the grand prize draw, but there are also a variety of other prizes up for grabs too, such as iPhones and iPads.
09.02.2012 05
“Watch Lionel Richie at sunset, while sipping a
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