As the UK wakes up today on October 2nd 2017 we are being greeted by some extremely sad news: Monarch Airlines (ZB or MON) has ceased operations and is in administration. Monarch was the UK's fifth largest carrier and it's failure has stranded an estimated 110,000 people overseas. It is the largest UK carrier to enter administration whereas last year it came upon the very brink of collapse but was saved at the last minute by a new investor.

The Final Monarch Flights For Me On FS2004 / FS9.

Over the last 48 hours as I feared the worst I crammed two Monarch Airlines rotations into my flying itinerary. The first flights completed a rotation between Manchester / MAN and Larnaca / LCA using the Project Airbus A321-232S G-ZBAI. Flights ZB535 MAN to LCA and ZB536 LCA to MAN chalked up a total of 8 hours 35 minutes in the air so slightly in excess of one day's duty time in real life. Made the excuse that I was on duty with an Opt Out Waiver in force permitting me to exceed the mandatory 8 hours 00 minutes maximum duty time by 0 hours 45 minutes in both directions! Logged on September 30th 2017.

Yesterday the second flights completed a rotation between Birmingham / BHX and Barcelona / BCN using the smaller Project Airbus A320-214 G-OZBX. Flights ZB875 BHX to BCN and ZB876 BCN to BHX chalked up 5 hours and 15 minutes in the air and involved a go around / missed approach to be flown at BCN due to conflicting traffic. No waivers were in force extending duty time today as this was not required and this has indeed turned out to be the final Monarch flight that I am likely to carry out on FS2004. Logged on October 1st 2017.

Monarch Airlines Repatriation Flight Idea.

With an estimated 110,000 customers to be repatriated up to 30 aircraft have been chartered by the UK Civil Aviation Authority to mount the biggest operation of it's kind ever seen in the UK. Carriers known to be involved are Qatar Airways who are using five Airbus Narrowbodies and BAW flight numbers along with Titan Airways and Canadian carrier Air Transat. These will be augmented by input from HiFly and Wamos Air so far with two other carriers yet to be confirmed as involved. As Monarch Airlines was preparing for the same last year Air Transat was readied and three Boeing 747-422s from United Airlines positioned within Europe ready to stage an identical operation. So for the next two weeks any of these (except the United B744s unless poetic license enters the equation) aircraft one has or can download for FS2004 / FS9 will be flyable around what used to be the Monarch Airlines network! Should give rise to some unique flights being logged such as an Air Transat Airbus Widebody between southern Europe and Manchester International / London Stansted!