Monarch is stepping in to fill the void left with the closure of loss-making Bmibaby with plans for a new base at East Midlands airport and expanded services from Birmingham.
The schedule leisure carrier is to open a new base at East Midlands from late summer by launching
flights to holiday destinations, including Malaga, Alicante,
Palma and Faro.
Monarch will expand operations from Birmingham by adding frequency on existing routes to Malaga, Alicante, Faro, Rome and
Palma and start flights to Barcelona.
The move came as Bmibaby confirmed that all flights to and from Belfast will cease from June 11. Services from East Midlands to Amsterdam, Paris, Geneva, Nice, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newquay, and from Birmingham to Knock and Amsterdam, will end on the same day.
The airline will be completely grounded from September 10 after new owner,
British Airways parent IAG, failed to find a buyer for the BMI budget subsidiary.
....
BMI said progress has been made with a potential buyer for BMI Regional.
Monarch managing director Kevin George said: “In light of recent industry changes, opportunities have opened up in the market.
"It has become clear that the Midlands will be underserved as a region in the future, and that there is a lack of quality carriers to serve customers travelling from the area.
“As an airline with over 40 years heritage and a stronghold in the Midlands already, the expansion of our existing services from Birmingham and the launch of operations from East Midlands makes perfect sense for Monarch, and accelerates the strategy we announced last year to focus on the development of our scheduled operations into key leisure destinations across the Mediterranean, the Canaries and North Africa.”
He added: “The further expansion of our services from the Midlands will provide even more customers in the Midlands with choice and flexibility and protects jobs at East Midlands airport in the future,”
As reported in
Travel Weekly