MONARCH CHIEF’S FLYING GETAWAY
Sets up new firm as airline crashes
THE boss of Monarch was setting-up his own firm as the stricken airline was collapsing, it has emerged.
Andrew Swaffield insisted he was “heartbroken” by the company’s failure, with the loss of 1,800 jobs. But, as Monarch was fighting for survival, polo-playing Mr Swaffield found time to get a new firm for himself off the ground. Records show electronic paperwork to establish Alcedo Consulting Services was received by Companies House on Friday. The two directors are Mr Swaffield, 50, and his partner William Low, 51, who he lives with in a £900,000 bungalow in West Sussex. The company was formally incorporated on Monday – the same day Monarch plunged into administration. Stefan Stern, director of the High Pay Centre, branded the timing “shocking”. He said: “He appears to have been planning his escape route before the passengers or crew. It used to be women and children first, now it seems to be chief executive first. It’s such bad taste and, frankly, stupid, to do this now.” The new firm is named after Mr Swaffield’s polo team Alcedo, which recently won several trophies at the Cowdray Park Polo Club, in Easebourne, West Sussex.
In a message seen by the Mirror, he insisted Monday’s collapse of Monarch was “the hardest day of my entire career”.
He added: “Seeing the end of the company and 1,800 people losing their jobs has been heartbreaking.”
Mr Swaffield previously ran a consultancy firm, CST Consulting, after losing his job at British Airways in 2005.
Mr Swaffield also became chief executive of another company, Shelfco 2017, that was set-up on September 25. The other directors include Nils Christy, Monarch’s chief operating officer, and Christopher Bennett, its finance director.
It came as it emerged taxpayers will pick up the cost of rescue flights for 110,000 stranded Monarch passengers – the biggest ever peacetime repatriation.
The bill for chartering planes from other airlines is estimated at £60million.
The Department of Transport says it will try to recoup money from ATOL.
CRASHED airline Monarch’s boss Andrew Swaffield has flown with indecent haste into his own new firm after leaving 1,800 staff stranded on the runway and thousands of customers with ruined holidays. Whatever happened to the buck stopping at the top?