In the week running up to the collapse of Monarch Airlines, one crew member noticed that something was awry. The soap had run out on a flight back to Gatwick and a request to replenish supplies was left unanswered. A few days later, on Monday this week, Monarch was no more: almost 2,000 staff would be laid off and the travel plans of 860,000 passengers would be disrupted.

It is a real shame that another British airline collapsed, I flew with them a couple of times and it was always enjoyable. Unfortunately, the taxpayers were left with a £60m bill from 2017, at that point, it was the biggest airline collapse in UK history. 

1967, Monarch Airlines was established by a pair of British businesspeople, Bill Hodgson and Don Peacock, both of whom had previously been directors at the airline British Eagle. The airline's initial fleet comprised a pair of Bristol Britannias (both ex-Caledonian Airways) serviced in a single hangar at Luton, in the late '80s, Monarch Airlines took delivery of its first new jet aircraft, a pair of Boeing 737-200s. In the 90s they replaced their 737-300s with The Airbus A320. In 2010-2014 their fleet was made up of mainly, 4 x A300s, 21 x A320s, 29 x A321s, 2 x A330s, 4 x 737s, 21 x 757s, and 10 x 767s, There was also 1 x DC10 and 2 x MD11s. In July 2014 the airline announced that it had selected Boeing, with the 737MAX, as the preferred bidder for 30 new aircraft. Monarch confirmed the order in October 2014, with deliveries due to take place from Q2 of 2018, which sadly never happened.

This livery was painted on requests from fellow simmers. Just unzip and place the second folder into your community folder. If you like, feel free to buy me a coffee.