Monarch’s airport slots can’t be sold off to rivals

Administrators for failed airline monarch are seeking an urgent appeal after losing a High Court battle over valuable runway slots it wants to sell to pay down debts.

two judges in London ruled against the ill-fated airline which went into administration on october 2. monarch wanted to sell the slots it believed it held for summer 2018 to rivals.

the collapse of monarch, which was owned by private equity firm Greybull Capital, led to 1,858 workers being made redundant and the flights and holidays of about 860,000 people being cancelled.

At the heart of the judicial review action being made by monarch Airlines Ltd was a decision by Airport Coordination Ltd (ACL) not to allocate certain take- off and landing slots to the airline for the summer 2018 season.

monarch said ACL’s approach was unlawful but judges rejected its claim that ACL had a duty to allocate the slots to monarch ‘by reason of historical precedence’.

Blair nimmo, partner at KPmG and joint administrator, said: ‘We are disappointed and will be seeking leave to appeal.’