Monarch’s collapse leaves 110,000 passengers stranded

UK low cost airline and holiday company Monarch Airlines has collapsed and been placed in administration leaving 110,000 customers stranded abroad.

The accountants KPMG announced in the early hours of Monday that Monarch, Britain’s longest-surviving airline, had been placed into administration and that all further flights from the UK had been cancelled and would not be rescheduled.

The Civil Aviation Authority said it had launched a programme to bring Monarch customers home over the next fortnight, chartering 30 planes for the rescue operation.

Some 300,000 future bookings have been cancelled as a result of the company's failure, the largest to hit a UK airline, and customers have been told to keep away from airports as there will be no more flights.

CAA chief executive Andrew Haines said: "We know that Monarch's decision to stop trading will be very distressing for all of its customers and employees.
"This is the biggest UK airline ever to cease trading, so the government has asked the CAA to support Monarch customers currently abroad to get back to the UK at the end of their holiday at no extra cost to them", he added.

The airline had been struggling financially and won a cash injection last October allowing it to continue flying holidaymakers and fund growth plans, as the sector faced turbulence from Brexit and terrorism.
Majority shareholder Greybull Capital had pumped another £165 million ($220 million) into Monarch to allow the airline to retain its licence to carry on selling package holidays.

The CAA had renewed Monarch's ATOL licences until the end of September 2017.
Monarch, based at Luton airport north of London, had been due to take delivery of the first of 30 Boeing 737 MAX-8 aircraft in 2018.