Monarch Airlines to expand its Birmingham Airport operation Read More

Monarch is preparing a major expansion at its Birmingham operation with thousands of additional seats, hundreds of new jobs, extra aircraft and new routes.

The low cost airline will add 150,000 new seats to its 2012 programme – 52 per cent up on this year, making Birmingham Airport one of its strongest bases.

And the increase will mean the creation of 200 new jobs, with Monarch taking on additional cabin crew, and operational personnel.

The new routes will include Rome, Milan and Venice, all cities the airline hopes will appeal to both leisure travellers and businessmen.

The other two new destinations for summer next year are Dubrovnik in Croatia and Heraklion in Crete.

To cope with the extra routes it is adding two additional Airbus A320 aircraft to its fleet of four aircraft already at Birmingham.

The airline’s managing director, Kevin George, said: “Since launching scheduled services from Birmingham in Summer 2005, Monarch’s operation has continued to grow from strength to strength and we have expanded our operations based on customer demand.”

Paul Kehoe, Birmingham Airport’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “The increase in the choice of routes served by Monarch underpins the confidence the airline has in the future growth of our region. In a difficult market it is encouraging to see this expansion also supporting the creation of up to 200 jobs.”

       Selman TENGÜZ

   Wednesday, May 18, 2011

       Talip BÖLÜKBAŞI

   Thursday, May 19, 2011