it is encouraging ABTA are at least asking some Questions
I hope Noel drives this it is a huge scandal and a chance for ABTA to become relevant again in the changing industry and be a credible and powerful voice and body for the independents and Vis/LCs and not a patsy to the CAA who are proving again that they are not fit for purpose by seemingly showing no business acumen or offering any transparency for this expenditure.

it is a well known fact confidential information leaks like a colander from the CAA its proven by the Monarch debacle hitting the public domain last fall when in fact it should have been highly confidential , the fact that the CAA talked to Aviation Brokers and then contracted Aircraft to be on Standby and these airlines then slot coordinated these Aircraft was a sure fire recipe to ensure it was all over the market and as a result Monarchs bookings collapsed and so nearly did a company that has been in business since 1968 and now will hopefully enjoy its 50th anniversary next year but only due to the fact Grey Bull refinanced in what must have been even more difficult circumstances due to the CAA careless and damaging actions that I agree were reckless.

How can you spend almost £30 000 000 securing available Aircraft in the market just to sit idle on standby? These carriers I believe United and Titan Airways had the metal available so if they had even offered let us say £100 000 per Aircraft per week to sit on SBY then 20 Aircraft x 2 weeks would of cost £4 000 000.
I know it was nothing like 20 Aircraft that were being held it was no more than 8 so if you do the math it would appear each Aircraft on Standby cost over £ 3 000 000
each - You can buy a A320 brand new for $40 m so in effect the CAA could of gone out a brought 2 or 3 10 year old Aircraft for the sum they paid to have Aircraft
sitting idle for 2 weeks in case (they decided ) Monarch went bust it is an outrage and needs a itemised and transparent audit conducted by independent Auditors with no alliance or allegiance to the CAA.

Monarch fate was always in the CAA hands so it wasn’t as if they were working in the dark waiting for another party to pull their ATOL it was their decision
alone so why pay all this money out on a whim...or did they want Monarch to fail but then could not justify their actions ..So many Questions and no answers

There appears to be no accountability and certainly the ATT should sit independent from the CAA as this sorry story clearly demonstrates, heads should roll like it would in any other business that blows 26£ m on a whim its shocking and not their money that seems to be forgotten the ATT is funded by the ASL tax so
it is honest Tax payers money(our customers) who support our industry that fund the ATT so in effect it should be managed by the Industry and independent professionals not the regulator ie the CAA it makes no sense and must be fully reviewed.

Go ABTA and sort please and suggest a commons select committee hearing where MR Cohen and others explain themselves If its good enough for Philip
Greene and Rupert Murdoch (business moguls) it must be good enough for highly paid civil servants to answer the public for once.

I have trust in Noel to ensure this is not kicked into the long grass and we see action and change and accountability for this disgraceful expenditure
and actions that nearly brought down a great Airline and travel business I hope lessons are learnt from this so others in future don’t suffer like Monarch have and still are due bad PR caused by the CAA

Steve K

I Agree with Joe comments but XL tried this in 2008 and it was rejected by the CAA nothing has changed since and how repatriations have or will be done and the system remains

draconian

In this day and age with the difficulty to even get an ATOL and the introduction of TTAs (Trusts) there is no need for the ATT in its current guise it’s simply a fund

that is awash with money and in effect burning a hole in the good civil servants pockets at the CAA who like councils and other Government bodies are never held to account

until the public get behind it, why would you give the Regulator the power to Regulate itself ?

I agree with sonny view the ATT must be independent from the CAA and be governed totally independent – If you had this safe guard you would have the correct weight and balances in place to make the CAA accountable if they have issued a ATOL and then that company fails this can be securitized by the ATT to avoid other mistakes and ensure

good corporate Governance in every ATOL holder, many companies who have called on the ATT and made it negative in the past were clearly not regulated by the CAA correctly,

Gold trail stands out as the worse in recent times but there have been many large failures like Globe span and XL before never have I seen this sort of funding being used as an

Insurance policy this in my view is not the role of a regulator , currently they are game keeper and poacher it is a ridiculous set up.

Know one has ever been held to account in the CAA for many of these previous errors , instead these same people have been allowed to manage the bulging ATT fund that is totally wrong and I agree three independent accountancy companies and 2 law companies un associated with the CAA should be the Regulators of the CAA in terms of managing the ATT fund certainly not the CAA.

If the CAA had to go through this process I doubt very much the ATT would of released the funds to put United Airlines / Titan and others on SBY for Monarch collapsing and

I would think none of us would be writing about this, as a well governed ATT would of said NO to such a request for funds to pay to greedy Airlines who have the Aircraft

available anyway…Its makes no sense at all what the CAA did this was not contingency planning this was totally reckless and could of made Monarch collapse totally

unnecessarily

The CAA CPG needs a total over haul they have far too much power and no accountability and this must change with a full Transparent enquiry.

I HOPE ABTA DON’T ROLE OVER AS THEY NORMALLY DO AND FOR ONCE STAND UP TO THE CAA AND SORT THIS SITUATION OUT THE CAA NEED TO BE ACCOUNTABLE TO THE

INDUSTRY AND GENERAL PUBLIC

Peter makes an interesting point. The CAA spent a lot of money to fly planes over from America to mirror planes which Monarch already had on the ground. If Monarch had collapsed, could the CAA not have said to them “Right lads, give us one last flight to get your customers home. Here’s some cash to make it happen.” I’m not sure how much cash would have been required, but I suspect it may have been less than £26.5M…

Reasonable, but if you think about it, they could only make one last flight, yet had many customers across europe

Unless Monarch's whole airline operation was take on for some time, the daily demands of schedules would have left many stranded

There would have been lots of people in the creditors queue impounding those aircraft right where they stood.

I think the CAA actions last year were reckless and nearly brought monarch to
Collapse
They acted far too prematureky and were
Waring to many hats

They should Not look after Regulation of
Atol and the AIr Transport TrustATT)
There is a clear conflict of interest

Many carriers who contribute to the
ATT by volume passengers (Asl charge)would of been pleased
If Monarch failed and this move by CAA
To in effect contribute to Monarchs demise
As everyone in aviation knew aircraft were
In Palma and canaries(slot coordination
Made this transparent) waiting for monarchs ATOL to be revoked l

The ATT must be managed by independent
Body maybe a cross party board
Pwc/EY/Delloitte and two legal firms that
Have no dealings with caa

Then the CAA will be properly challenged
Before wasting tax payers money

I hope majority of this obscene needless charge has been given to Monarch to
Stop them suing the CAA/ATT for many
More millions that they must feel is owed
As their bookings dropped of a cliff last year and they are still suffering from the bad press they received when it all should of
Been confidential and not in public domain

Grey Bull should take legal action ATT has
Plenty if money that Grey bull should target

Disgraceful Caa !

I cannot believe the CAA have wasted Tax
Payers money like this
A full transparent breakdown of this expenditure needs to be supplied and
If any third party broker was involved or
If the CAA worked independently.
How can you amass such huge costs to
Have aircraft on standby with no ditect operating costs to actually fly passengers?
This needs a public enquiry no Airline
Makes this sort if profit for 2 weeks operation flying let alone sitting on a tarmac waiting for the very same regulator who approved Monarchs Atol to make a decision
We need total Transparency as its a sham
How oresebted with seemingly no account ability
Wheres Mr Jackson the old Ceo caa now?

They would have been better just giving the money to Monarch if it really was that close to collapse!