UK airline set to relaunch flights – six years after shutting down
A British airline that went bankrupt is set to return after six years.
Monarch Airlines was one of the oldest airlines in Great Britain and was founded in 1967.
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However, the airline failed back in October 2017 because it was unable to renew its ATOL license.
More than 110,000 passengers were stranded abroad, along with hundreds of thousands others Future bookings affected.
Still, the airline could soon be offering flights from the UK again, as well as holiday packages.
A new airline social media account tweeted: “We are working hard to build a brand new Monarch, just for you.”
They added in another tweet, “Monarch Airlines Limited and Monarch.” public holidays Limited changed hands yesterday after the departure of the company’s founder and previous majority shareholder. More information will follow shortly.”
The airline has also launched a new website – letsmonarch.co.uk – as well as Instagram and Twitter accounts.
Monarch’s new chairman, Daniel Ellingham, told Airline Magazine airlines he would “found a new and strong company for the British tourism sector”.
He added: “For newcomers like us, there is an opportunity to step up and meet demand.”
However, the new airline would face competition Jet2 , easyJet And TUIand the newly launched Thomas Cook.
There are no current details on when they might start again or how much flights would cost.
However, the airline has already attracted investors from the UK and EU and is expected to make contact with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the coming weeks.
When Monarch went bust in 2017, it was the largest peacetime repatriation scheme at the time, costing £60million, although this was overtaken by the collapse of Thomas Cook in 2019.
Up to 860,000 bookings were canceled in what the Civil Aviation Authority described at the time as “the biggest UK airline bankruptcy of all time”.
The airline cited a number of reasons for its collapse, including a slump in the pound, rising fuel costs and fears of terrorism that would hurt tourism in Turkey, Egypt and Tunisia.
It once carried up to 6.3 million passengers from Gatwick, Luton, Birmingham, Leeds-Bradford and Manchester airports to 40 destinations.
In addition to popular tourist destinations such as Alicante and Rhodes, the airline also flew seasonal flights to Venice and Paphos.
It’s not the only airline to have restarted in recent years.
Flybe, which went bankrupt in 2020, resumed flights in 2022 – only to file for bankruptcy again earlier in the year.
Low-cost airline PLAY launched last year, replacing WOW Air, which went bust in 2019, with cheap flights between the UK and US.
And Global Airlines will introduce cheap transatlantic flights between the UK and the US.
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