Monarch Airlines has entered administration and all flights have been cancelled with immediate effect.
Monarch has appointed three partners from KPMG to be the administrators of the company, says the accounting firm in a statement.
Overall, ten units have been placed under administration, including most of the Monarch Group's travel and aviation assets.
MRO units Monarch Aircraft Engineering and Monarch Ukraine are not in administration, however.
“Mounting cost pressures and increasingly competitive market conditions in the European short-haul market have contributed to the Monarch Group experiencing a sustained period of trading losses," sasy KPMG partner Blair Nimmo.
He adds that the company entered into administration in the early hours of 2 October, and was timed so that the airline's fleet was all on the ground.
"Once the company entered insolvency, the Air Operating Certificate it needs to be able to fly was effectively suspended, which is why all outbound flights were cancelled with immediate effect," Nimmo says.
He adds that the primary focus over over the next 48 hours is seeing that 110,000 customers overseas are returned to the UK in the next two weeks. Alternative arrangements will be found for these passengers. The UK Civil Aviation Authority will co-ordinate the recovery, with assistance from company employees and the administrators.
Flight Fleets Analyzer shows that Luton-based Monarch operates 35 Airbus A320 family aircraft and a single Boeing 737. It has firm orders for 35 737 Max 8 aircraft.
Source: Cirium Dashboard
