The Monarch Group Announces New Chairman And Chief Executive Officer

• Sir Roy McNulty to become Non-Executive Chairman
• Andrew Swaffield to become Group Chief Executive Officer
• Andrew Lavery to become Chief Financial Officer
• Iain Rawlinson to step down from the Board after five years as Chairman

The Monarch Group, the UK's leading independent travel group, announces the appointments of Sir Roy McNulty, currently a Non-Executive Director, as Group Chairman and Andrew Swaffield, currently Managing Director of Monarch Airlines, as Group Chief Executive. They will assume the responsibilities of Iain Rawlinson, Executive Chairman, who steps down from the Board after five years with the Group. Andrew Lavery has also been appointed Chief Financial Officer.

Sir Roy McNulty is one of Britain's most experienced executives in the transport and aviation sectors. He is currently Chairman of Gatwick Airport and has previously held the same role at NATS and the CAA; in addition he is Deputy Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority. Sir Roy was Chief Executive and Chairman of Short Brothers, which became part of Bombardier in 1989, and was Chairman of the Rail Value for Money Study sponsored by the Department of Transport.

Andrew Swaffield joined Monarch Airlines in April 2014 from Avios Group Limited, where he was Managing Director for seven years from 2006. Under Andrew's leadership, Avios launched the new global single currency for International Airlines Group (IAG), which owns Avios Group Limited, and the new Avios brand in 2011. He has over 25 years' management experience in travel, aviation and airline loyalty gained with Thomas Cook and British Airways, where he headed leisure sales in the UK and Ireland, as well as running its travel agency and tour operating subsidiaries.

Andrew Lavery joined The Monarch Group in May 2014 as Group Finance Director. Andrew is a qualified accountant of 25 years' standing. He qualified with Ernst & Young, and spent 10 years in its London Corporate Finance department advising on clients including British Airways, Saga Leisure and Thomas Cook. After leaving Ernst & Young in 1999, he spent three years at British Airways where he was Head of Investments and Joint Ventures and also acted as a trustee of the BA Pension fund. Since 2002 Andrew has been the Group Finance Director for Peter De Haan's private office.

Sir Roy McNulty said: "On behalf of the Mantegazza family, the Group's principal shareholder, I would like to thank Iain for his five years of service to Monarch where he has strengthened the Group and repositioned Monarch Airlines as a differentiated scheduled low-cost carrier with a focus on superior customer service. He leaves with our best wishes."

Iain Rawlinson said: "The Monarch Group has reached another chapter in its development and the time is now right for me to stand back. There could be no two better people than Sir Roy and Andrew Swaffield, both with exceptional careers in the aviation and transport industries, to take Monarch forward and build on the excellent Monarch name and reputation."

Andrew Swaffield said: "This is a challenging time for airlines and we have much to do. Monarch has outstanding people, a strongly differentiated position in the budget airline market and an excellent travel group and engineering business. I look forward to working with my colleagues to realise all the opportunities ahead of us. As a priority, along with our work on a new fleet of aircraft, we are currently engaged with our shareholder in a close look at our capital structure to ensure we have the most appropriate base to support future growth."