Monarch Airlines goes bust cancelling 300,000 bookings with scramble to rescue 110,000 stuck abroad
The collapse of the UK's fifth biggest airline will see the biggest ever peacetime mission to repatriate Brits
MONARCH Airlines has gone bust and all its future bookings have been cancelled.
The UK's fifth biggest airline is the largest ever to go into administration and has left 110,000 passengers stuck overseas.
The British holiday operator failed to reach a deal by midnight with the Civil Aviation Authority to prevent its collapse.
Now more than 30 new flights will have to be chartered by the CAA to rescue stranded British passengers from overseas.
Some arriving for their scheduled flights this morning were given a piece of paper warning them of the situation and to return home if they were expecting to fly Monarch.
Among them were a wedding party who found out at 10 minutes notice they would not be able to fly to Gran Canaria for their big day.
Administrators KPMG say a total of 860,000 passengers will be affected by the closure.
Courtney Smith, 21, from Walton-on-the-Naze, Essex, told Sun Online she found out her flight home from Majorca had been cancelled this morning.
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Contact details for Monarch and the Civil Aviation Authority can be found at the bottom of the story
She said: "There are five of us due to fly home on Thursday and now we're left scrabbling to find out how we get home.
"We've heard nothing from Monarch and only found out through news websites back home. It's a nightmare and has put a real downer on our holiday.
"We're waiting for a call back to find out when our flight back home will be but me and my fiancee are both back in work on Friday so we're very stressed about the situation."
Bob Young, 63, from Wantage, Oxon, told Sun Online he fears he last lost a £12,000 family holiday to Lanzarote booked for October half-term.
He said: "It's a large family holiday with 27 of us we booked in December but I think we'll struggle to find flights now.
"We haven't had any communication from Monarch whatsoever and they only took our final payment three weeks ago.
"It's disappointing for us and very upsetting for the children."
A newlywed couple say their honeymoon has been left in ruins by the announcement.
Heartbroken Mark Damms and Amanda Lumm - who were set to fly to Turkey for a two-week honeymoon next Monday - are among thousands more whose travel plans have been left in tatters.
Amanda, 48, from Withnersea, East Yorkshire, said: "I can’t stop crying. I’m so upset.
“We have ten kids between us and we never get any time to ourselves and this holiday was just going to be about us.
“We can’t afford another holiday and I’ve got no idea if we can get any money back.
“We get married on Saturday and my sister was coming over from Gibraltar.
"But she also booked with Monarch and she has just told me they can’t get to England for the wedding.
"It seems everything just keeps going wrong."
Heartbroken Alan Jee, 42 and Donna Smith, 40, had been planning to fly to Gran Canaria this morning for their dream wedding and fear they will now have to cancel their big day.
Speaking at Gatwick Airport, Alan, from Bournemouth, said: "I have got 30 people here, they have travelled from all over the country, I've spent £12,000 to £15,000.
"Monarch have just told us we have to book new flights with other airlines, I am going to really struggle to do that.
";The prices have gone up from around £120 return to £480 return.
"We have been left high and dry."
"We were meant to be flying out at 5.30am, ten minutes before we were due to board a tannoy announcement went out informing everyone that the flight had been cancelled."
Hairdresser Courtney Boylan, 20 from Edenbridge, Kent, and sister Georgia, 17, were 10 minutes away for leaving for the airport when they found out their holiday to Turkey had been cancelled.
She said: "When we found out we were literally about 10 minutes before heading to the airport. My mum turned the TV on and we could see that all flights were cancelled.
"We were dressed, all the bags were by the door and we found out we couldn't go.
“We booked the holiday back in January and it’s been a payment plan since, we’re young girls and we’ve been working really hard so we had spending money. Now – we’re not going."
A mum and dad who saved for two years for a holiday to Lapland were forced to tell their kids the trip of a lifetime has been cancelled due to the collapse.
Luke Warren and his wife Natalie had saved to take their boys Maximas, eight, and Maddox, six, to Lapland in December.
Luke said: "I still can't believe it.
"This was the trip of a lifetime for us, and possibly the last year we could do it. As Maximas next year will become subjective to believing in Santa - so we thought we would go for it.
"Telling them this morning was awful, the eldest was just in shock - he didn't understand how something like this could happened, and the youngest is just disappointed."
Barry Gill fears he could miss out on walking his daughter down the aisle after the collapse.
He was due to fly out to Cyprus on Wednesday for the wedding of his daughter, Gemma Brown.
Mr Gill's stepdaughter, Joanne Richardson, 24, said her parents could be forced to shell out as much as £800 for new flights.
She said: "We found out early this morning that Monarch had gone bust and we've spent all the time since then trying to sort out new flights.
"We (she and her stepsister) are already out in Cyprus but Mum and Dad, with working during the week, had been planning to come Wednesday through to Saturday.
"We checked the website in the morning and it said all the flights were cancelled. It's left people in the lurch."
The airline has been slammed for pushing sales of its flights until just three days before it went bust.
Sheila Wilson, 45, from Whitby, North Yorkshire, spent £630 on flights from Manchester to Fuerteventura for a family holiday just three weeks ago.
She told Sun Online: "We wish we'd been given more information when we booked and we haven't had any communication at all even after it went bust.
"It's devastating news and now we're having to see if we're covered and if we can save our holiday."
Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said: "This is a hugely distressing situation for British holidaymakers abroad - and my first priority is to help them get back to the UK.
"That is why I have immediately ordered the country's biggest ever peacetime repatriation to fly about 110,000 passengers who could otherwise have been left stranded abroad."
Administrator Blair Nimmo said Monarch had struggled with mounting costs and competitive market conditions that saw it suffer a period of sustained losses.
The collapse was preceded by chaotic scenes at some airports yesterday.
Police were called at Birmingham Airport amid heated scenes as passengers of a Monarch flight from Tenerife waited to reclaim their luggage for more than four hours.
What to do if you are a Monarch customer
- Customers in the UK yet to travel: don't go to the airport
- Customers abroad: everyone due to fly in the next fortnight will be brought back to the UK at no cost to them. There is no need to cut short your stay
- Customers currently overseas should check for confirmation of their new flight details - which will be available a minimum of 48 hours in advance of their original departure time
- All affected customers should keep checking for more information
- The CAA also has a 24-hour helpline: 0300 303 2800 from the UK and Ireland and +44 1753 330330 from overseas
- You should expect to be flown as close as possible to your planned departure dates, no earlier, and prepare for disruption to journeys.
- There will be no online check-in. You will be issued with a new flight and new boarding card and will not be able to check in with your old flight details.
- If you have booked flights administrators say rules are "complicated" over whether you can get your money back depending on whether flights were ATOL protected and if you paid via credit or debit card. However most passengers are expected to receive a refund.
The last ever Monarch flight landed at Manchester Airport from Tel Aviv at around 3am this morning.
The airline, whose headquarters are at London Luton Airport, was founded in 1968.
It also operates from four other UK bases including London Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds Bradford to more than 40 destinations around Europe and further afield.
The company employs approximately 2,750 predominantly UK based staff, its website states.
UK travel firms selling holidays and flights are required to hold an Atol , which protects customers with pre-booked holidays from being stranded abroad in the event of circumstances such as the company ceasing to trade.
A number of staff and passengers have spoken about the airline's closure this morning.
Pilot Steve Pearson wrote on Twitter: "Absolutely devastated doesn't even come close
One passenger wrote: "Woke up at 4am to see all Monarch flights cancelled. No comms from about replacement flights so booked flight home."
Other travellers said they had been texted by Monarch in the early hours of the morning with a message telling them "please do not go to the airport".
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