Redundancies at Luton Airport as airline goes into administration

The joint administrators of Monarch Airlines Limited and Monarch Travel Group have confirmed the redundancies of 1,858 employees. Of these, 1,760 were employees of Monarch Airlines, while 98 were employed by the travel group. It is not known how many of the employees were based at Luton Airport.

Blair Nimmo, Jim Tucker and Mike Pink from liability partnership KPMG were appointed joint administrators of the airline early on Monday, October 2, while Blair Nimmo, Jim Tucker and Steve Absalom were appointed joint administrators of the travel group.

The companies employed 2,100 people between them, who have been kept on to assist in the administration process and help collate critical information to assist the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) with the repatriation of customers who are currently overseas.

Blair Nimmo, 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 the 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.”

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

Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) has said its train companies, including Thameslink and Great Northern, will honour the rail tickets of Monarch passengers arriving in the UK early or late, and will refund or rearrange tickets sold at its station or websites.