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Monarch Airlines goes bust - what should you do?

In the biggest-ever failure of a British airline Monarch has gone bust after it lost its licence to sell holidays. All future flights with the firm from Monday 2 October have been cancelled.

What happened?

Monarch’s demise comes as the airline was just about to celebrate its 50th anniversary. The company, which had 2,100 workers, fell victim to a price war over flights to the Mediterranean. Mounting costs saw it suffer a period of sustained losses until collapsing early on Monday morning.

The firm’s finances deteriorated in 2016, after security concerns deterred travel to Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt and brought increased capacity for routes to Iberia. The airline was bailed out by its owner Greybull Capital a year ago.

Who is affected?

More than 100,000 people are currently overseas on a Monarch trip. Meanwhile around 750,000 people have 300,000 bookings with the firm, which will not now be honoured. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) said it had been asked by the government to charter more than 30 aircraft to bring the passengers home, with transport secretary Chris Grayling calling it the “biggest peacetime repatriation” effort. A plane carrying 165 passengers from Ibiza was the first to arrive, landing at Gatwick on Monday morning, hours after the airline’s board called in administrators KPMG. Repatriation flights are for all passengers who purchased tickets with Monarch irrespective of their nationality.

Who should you contact for advice?

Check the latest advice on www.monarch.caa.co.uk. The Civil Aviation Authority also has a 24-hour helpline: 0300 303 2800 from the UK and Ireland and +44 1753 330330 from overseas. The Civil Aviation Authority says: “All customers already overseas and due to travel back to the UK on or before 15 October 2017 will have a new flight home arranged at no extra cost to you, as close as possible to your original return date and time.”

Visit Monarch’s website to get confirmation of your new flights. Details of your return flight should be available a minimum of 48 hours before your original Monarch flight time.