Greybull Capital controlled Monarch Airlines seeks £35m in short-term loans
Monarch said it expected an EBITDA of over £40m for the year to October 2016, despite terrorist incidents, Brexit sterling devaluation Reuters

Monarch Airlines has denied rumours that it is going bust. It added that its flights and holidays were operating as normal and it was carrying its customers as scheduled.

In a statement, the budget carrier said, "Monarch is trading well and is expected to achieve an EBITDA of over £40m [$51.74] at the end of this financial year (October 2016). This is despite a difficult period for the holiday industry due to terrorist incidents, Brexit and the resulting devaluation of sterling."

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The company added that it expected to announce a significant investment from its stakeholders over the next few days. This would be used to fund its growth plans and to offset tougher market conditions.

Speculation that the Luton, UK headquartered company was going to fold are said to have started over the weekend. It was brought to light by customers on the company's twitter feed.

According to the Independent, a tweet by Monarch customer Adam Farmiloe read, "Are you going bust tonight? Hope not, we have flights booked" To this Monarch had replied, "Absolutely not Adam. We hope you have a great flight, where are you off to?"

"Hi there, the rumours are not true. Please ignore them," the airline had tweeted to another of its customers who was concerned about his flights. A Monarch spokesperson said they had no idea where the rumours were coming from but they could confirm it was not true.

The development follows budget tour operator, Lowcostholidays going into administration in July. It put the holiday trips of 137,000 of its customers in turmoil. Of these, 27,000 customers were in the midst of their holiday while the remaining had booked their trips but were yet to take off.

Monarch Airlines, a trading name of First Aviation Limited was founded in 1967 and currently has about 2,800 employees. In 2014, investment firm Greybull Capital acquired a 90% stake in Monarch as part of a £100m rescue deal.

In June 2016, Monarch was reportedly seeking £35m in short-term loans. Andrew Swaffield, the chief executive at Monarch had then said the funds were required to survive the winter period, the dullest for all airlines.