Monarch Airlines, a UK-based airline with its main headquarters at London Luton Airport, has announced major construction work at Birmingham Airport in the West Midlands.
The airline has said that it will create up to 300 jobs at Birmingham Airport with the development of a new hangar and engineering facility that is large enough to accommodate two Boeing 777-300ER aircraft, or ten narrow body aircraft. It has also said that there is the likelihood of the project creating a further 150 jobs at a later stage.
The company currently has five bases at airports in the UK, and operates flights from Manchester, Birmingham, London Luton, Gatwick, East Midlands and, from March 23, 2013, it will have a sixth base with the commencement of operations at Leeds Bradford. The East Midland operation is also a recent addition to the company’s operational base, with the company stepping in to operate some of the routes previously flown by Bmibaby, which ceased its operations at the airport when the company closed on September 9, 2012.
Monarch offers cheap and last minute flights to destinations in the Mediterranean, the Canary Islands, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece and Turkey, and offers charter services to Europe, the Caribbean, India, Africa and the United States.
Since the company commenced operations in April 1968, it has grown its workforce to a present day level of around 3,000 employees, and carried approximately 5.9 million passengers in 2011.
Monarch Airlines intends its new hangar at Birmingham Airport to be finished and operational by the end of 2013.
