UK tries to bring home 110,000 travellers after airline fails
LONDON — British authorities are scrambling to bring home 110,000 travellers after Monarch Airlines collapsed Monday, cancelling all flights by what had been Britain’s fifth biggest carrier with 2,100 employees.
The Civil Aviation Authority said it has leased 30 aircraft to transport Monarch customers scattered around holiday destinations ranging from Turkey to Spain and Sweden. Flights will be provided at no additional cost to passengers.
“This is a hugely distressing situation for British holidaymakers abroad, and my first priority is to help them get back to the U.K.,” Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said in a statement. “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.”
Some 860,000 customers in all are affected, with 750,000 with future bookings.