Monarch steps in

bmiBaby’s demise may have been bad news for the airline and its staff but it has certainly offered an opportunity for Luton-headquartered Monarch.  The airline has established a base at East Midlands Airport, formerly the centre of bmiBaby’s operations.  On 18 May it puts on sale a whole cluster of routes previously flown by its rival. 

Monarch is for the most part a leisure market airline although it does carry a proportion of business travellers.  It says that its new services will account for a quarter of Bmibaby’s existing routes from the Midlands.

The routes include new flights from East Midlands to Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Palma, plus additional frequencies from Birmingham to Alicante, Faro, Malaga and Palma, whilst Barcelona is introduced.

Monarch was founded in 1967 and has grown to be a scheduled service and charter airline which last year carried 5.9m passengers. 

It is now the UK’s longest established airline, and with the same Swiss ownership.  By the summer of 2014 it is likely to be an all Airbus carrier with a mixture of A320 series aircraft plus at least the two A330s it currently operates. www.monarch.co.uk

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