UK scheduled and chartered carrier Monarch Airlines has gone into administration, following failed last-minute talks with the Civil Aviation Authority around the renewal of its package holiday licence.
A statement on the gov.uk website said that:
“Administrators were appointed to Monarch Airlines Ltd and Monarch Travel Group Ltd went into administration on October 2, 2017.
“All Monarch flights have been cancelled with immediate effect, and the government has pledged to work with the CAA, who are leading the repatriation effort, to bring back all passengers currently overseas who were booked on a Monarch flight home to the UK.
“The government is organising special flights back for passengers who are affected, at no cost to them.”
The government said it had begun “an unprecedented repatriation effort to return 110,000 passengers affected by the failure of Monarch”, with Transport Secretary Chris Grayling referring to it as “the country’s biggest ever peacetime repatriation”.
“Together with the CAA, we will work around the clock to ensure Monarch passengers get the support they need,” Grayling added.
“Nobody should underestimate the size of the challenge, so I ask passengers to be patient and act on the advice given by the CAA.”
The statement said that passengers “should expect to be flown home as close as possible to their planned departure dates and no earlier, and to prepare for disruption to their journeys”.
It also warned that “some passengers may need to extend their stay abroad – and others may be flown back to different UK airports, with coaches available to take them to their destination airport”.
The Monarch Airlines website now redirects to a CAA page offering further advice.
