Monarch repatriation enters second week

The Civil Aviation Authority will bring back the remaining 30,000 overseas Monarch passengers over the next seven days as week two of the repatriation programme gets underway.

The CAA also said it will distribute claim forms to ATOL-protected customers who had future flights cancelled this week and will settle claims within 28 days.

The authority is warning of ‘additional complexities’ in the second week of repatriation and says more passengers are likely to return to a different airport than the one their original flight departed.

The CAA completed over 400 flights to return over 80,000 people to the UK in the first seven days after Monarch went into administration in the early hours of last Monday morning.

The figure accounts for over 72% of the 110,000 Monarch customers overseas at the time of administration.

More than 98% arrived home on the same day as their original flight was due to return.

The remaining 30,000 will be returned home this week, but they are being warned the CAA needs to bring together passengers from a number of smaller flights onto one larger aircraft.

The CAA said: "This will mean that more passengers are likely to return to a different UK airport than their original flight, where coach transfers will be provided ensuring that everyone gets back to where they need to be.

"Additional logistical plans have been implemented to ensure all passengers are transferred to their original departure airport should they be flown to a different UK location as part of the flight consolidation in week two.  More than 260 coaches are involved in this operation."

Today, Monday October 9, day eight of the flying programme, the CAA plans to operate 38 flights, bringing over 5,500 people back to the UK.

Richard Moriarty, CAA Group Director of Consumers and Markets, said: "It is really important that anyone planning to travel on one of our flights checks the website – monarch.caa.co.uk – where their flight details will be confirmed.  

"Although nobody will be asked to fly to the UK before the day of their original flight, some will be asked to head to the airport a few hours earlier than their original check-in time as some of our flights will be departing earlier.  

"All of the details will be confirmed on the website so please keep checking and not less than 24 hours before your original departure time."

Claim forms for ATOL protected Monarch customers will be emailed directly to customers or to their travel agent and will be settled within 28 days of being submitted, subject to the correct information being provided.

The CAA revealed its call centre took 38,608 calls over the last week while the dedicated website monarch.caa.co.uk recorded over 1.1million unique visitors and nearly 7 million page views.