Hundreds of people made redundant after Luton based Monarch Airlines ceases trading

Over a thousand people have been made redundant after Monarch Airlines, based at London Luton airport, went into administration on Monday morning.
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Monarch

The joint administrators of Monarch Airlines Limited and Monarch Travel Group confirmed the news yesterday afternoon.

Of those made redundant, 1,760 were employees of Monarch Airlines and 98 were employed by Monarch Travel Group.

Between them the companies employed approximately 2100 people.

The remainder have been retained by the joint administrators to assist them in the administration process and to help collate critical information to assist the CAA who will be bringing customers who are currently overseas back to the UK.

The majority of the airlines staff worked at Luton airport, 645 staff were employed there.

Blair Nimmo, Jim Tucker and Mike Pink from KPMG were appointed joint administrators to Monarch Airlines Limited early on Monday 2 October 2017.

At the same time, Blair Nimmo, Jim Tucker and Steve Absolom from KPMG have been appointed joint administrators to Monarch Travel Group Limited.

Partner at KPMG and Joint Administrator Blair Nimmo spoke about the news on Monday, he said: “We know that today has been a very sad and difficult day for the Monarch employees.

“Shortly before the appointment of the Joint Administrators, all employees received an email from the Company confirming that it was about to enter administration.

“Following this, the absolute priority for me and my team was to try and make contact with all members of staff as soon as possible, in order that we could communicate what the administration means for them.

“Regrettably, with the business no longer able to fly, a significant number of redundancies were made. Over the coming days, my team will be doing all it can to assist the employees in submitting claims to the Redundancy Payments Office for monies owed.”

The Group’s engineering operation, Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited, is not in administration and continues to trade normally.

The announcement is devastating news for pilots, BALPA, which represents Monarch pilots, will be doing everything it can to support our members through this extremely difficult time said its General Secretary.

Brian Strutton, BALPA General Secretary, said: “The thoughts of all UK airline pilots are with our friends and colleagues in Monarch today (Monday).

“This is an extremely difficult situation for everyone involved, but especially for Monarch staff members who, in the case of many pilots, have spent their whole careers working for Monarch and are now to be made redundant.

“We were hoping that the clear difficulties Monarch were in could have been resolved and the airline could continue trade. Sadly, that is not going to be the case.

“However, we will be working with our partner airlines across the UK and with our Monarch members to try and help them secure new jobs as quickly as possible.

“The skill, experience and professionalism of Monarch pilots cannot and must not be allowed to ebb from our aviation industry.”

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