KPMG has announced the collapse of Monarch airlines on Monday morning, cancelling all further flights from the UK.
The airline has been placed into administration and will bring Monarch customers back the UK over the next fortnight over specially chartered planes.
“We know that Monarch’s decision to stop trading will be very distressing for all of its customers and employees,” said the Andrew Haines, the CAA chief executive.
“This is the biggest UK airline ever to cease trading, so the government has asked the CAA to support Monarch customers currently abroad to get back to the UK at the end of their holiday at no extra cost to them,”
“We are putting together, at very short notice and for a period of two weeks, what is effectively one of the UK’s largest airlines to manage this task. The scale and challenge of this operation means that some disruption is inevitable. We ask customers to bear with us as we work around the clock to bring everyone home.”
300,000 future booking has been cancelled and holidayers have been told to look at a dedicated website for advice and information.
The airline reported a loss of £291 million for the year to October 2016. The company, which chartered flights and sold package holidays, had felt the impacts of terror attacks in Tunisia, Turkey and Egypt.
The CAA will announce on Monday whether or not the group are able to continue selling package holidays.
“This is a hugely distressing situation for British holidaymakers abroad – and my first priority is to help them get back to the UK,” said transport secretary, Chris Grayling.
“That is why I have immediately ordered the country’s biggest ever peacetime repatriation to fly about 110,000 passengers who could otherwise have been left stranded abroad.
“Nobody should underestimate the size of the challenge, so I ask passengers to be patient and act on the advice given by the CAA.”
Monarch airlines are not the first airline to face administration this year. Air Berlin and Alitalia have also faced collapse.