Monarch Airlines is a charter airline based in Luton, United Kingdom. It is one of the UK's largest charter airlines operating to Europe, USA, Caribbean, India and Africa serving mainly leisure destinations. It also operates scheduled flights (under the Monarch Scheduled brand) to Mediterranean destinations and the Canary Islands. Its main bases are London Luton (LTN) and London Gatwick (LGW). HistoryThe airline was established on 1 June 1967 and started operations on 5 April 1968 using a Bristol 175 plane. In 1971, Monarch entered the jet age with the Boeing 720 jet. By 1976, all the planes on Monarch's fleet were jets. The 1980s was a decade of change for Monarch: in 1981, offices were opened at London Gatwick Airport, Glasgow International Airport and Manchester International Airport. In 1985, Monarch applied for scheduled airline licenses, and on 5 July 1986, Monarch Crown Service was inaugurated as a scheduled division of Monarch. In 1999, Monarch received Airbus A330 aircraft, allowing it to serve long reach charter destinations with a two class seating configuration. 2000 saw the coming of Monarch into the internet age, as they launched their website. In 2002, Monarch unveiled a new livery on their aircraft, and Monarch Crown Service was re-named to Monarch Scheduled. In Nov. 2005 Monarch starts flying from Aberdeen(Dyce), Newquay and Blackpool (Squires Gate) to Malaga. 2005 saw Monarch Airlines disposing the only DC-10 in the Fleet and donating the Front Section for use at Manchester Airport Aviation Park. Due to the lack of additional A330 aircraft on the market, Monarch leased one Boeing 767-300ER from MyTravel Airways to expand their long-haul product. Additional Destinations were put on the Network Map with services fly from Aberdeen(Dyce), Newquay and Blackpool (Squires Gate) to Malaga. In the world of Model airplanes, Monarch has contracts with several airplane model companies, such as Wooster, Flight Miniatures, etc. Monarch Airlines operates services to the following international scheduled destinations: Alicante, Almería, Barcelona, Faro, Gibraltar, Granada, Lanzarote, Lisbon, Las Palmas, Málaga, Menorca and Tenerife, with Murcia to join the network in Feb 2006. Este artículo esta bajo la licencia de documentación libre GNU. Se usa material del artículo Wikipedia "Monarch Airlines". |