AROUND 40 flights in and out of Birmingham Airport have been cancelled today after Monarch Airlines collapsed leaving more than 100,000 people stranded overseas.
Some 300,000 future bookings with the UK low-cost carrier and tour operator have also been cancelled and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has launched an operation to fly home those abroad. People with bookings have been told not to stay away from the airport.
Customers affected by the company’s collapse have been urged to check a dedicated website – monarch.caa.co.uk – for advice and information on flights back to the UK. It also gives information to those passengers that have future bookings with Monarch but are yet to leave the UK.
Andrew Haines, CAA chief executive, said: “We are putting together, at very short notice and for a period of two weeks, what is effectively one of the UK’s largest airlines to manage this task. The scale and challenge of this operation means that some disruption is inevitable.”
Monarch, which runs the UK’s fifth-largest airline, flies to around 40 destinations from five UK airports, including Birmingham, and employs around 2,100 people.
