New updated advice in Monarch passengers repatriation

Passengers continue to be repatriated to the UK following the collapse of Monarch Airlines earlier this week.

Yesterday the Civil Aviation Authority website reported that two replacement aircraft would depart from Gibraltar Airport and today a further three replacement aircraft would also be made available.

This was confirmed by the Gibraltar Government yesterday in a statement which also confirmed that close to 500 passengers had been successfully repatriated to the UK from the Gibraltar Airport on Monday “handled successfully and largely without incident”.

“In total 216 passengers left for Gatwick and Luton from the Airport, while approximately 200 passengers were provided with coaches to Malaga Airport from where their replacement aircraft, which could not land at Gibraltar, departed to Manchester and Birmingham,” said the statement.

The Government had been closely monitoring the situation throughout the weekend when the news first broke.
As more passengers continue to be repatriated to the UK – in what has been described as the UK's biggest peacetime repatriation operation.

The Gibraltar Government said the Birmingham and Luton flights have been amalgamated into one flight, with the aircraft landing in Luton; Birmingham passengers being provided with bus transport to take them onwards to their final destination.

The Office of Fair Trading, Consumer Protection Department it added had also provided advice for passengers who booked flights with Monarch and wanted to seek redress for the services not provided:

• Travelling to UK Travelling to UK on or before 15 October - You may not need to re-book the outbound portion of your flight with an alternative airline. Check the following website for details on your new flight arranged by the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK: http://monarch.caa.co.uk. Details of flights should be available 48 hours before departure.

• Travel Insurance. If you have this type of cover Travel Insurance ease read your policy booklet carefully and confer directly with your travel insurance broker or provider for information relating to the type of cover they are able to provide you with. Please note however that you may find that ‘financial failure or insolvency’ is not included.

• Contact your card issuer. If you paid with a card credit card and the cost of each flight was over £1 t card 00 you may be able to claim under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1979. As this legislation makes the credit card company jointly liable together with the company providing the goods or service (in this case Monarch) to the consumer, you may want to contact the credit card company prior to making contact the credit card company prior to making alternative bookings with another airline, to try alternative bookings with another airline avoid forfeiting any rights afforded by this legislation. If you paid with your debit card or the cost of the flight was under £100 and you paid under £100 and you paid with your credit card, you may be able to apply for charge back. Although there is no joint liability under these circumstances, the card company may be able to recover your money from the merchant’s bank. You would generally need to claim within 120 days from the day you became aware of the problem.

• Pay Pal – Contact them directly to try and seek reimbursement of your monies.

• Travel Agent – If you booked your holiday with a travel agent this may qualify as a package holiday (e.g: a holiday made up of flights and accommodation) under the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Act which may afford you extra rights. Contact your travel agent as they may be able to assist with alternative arrangements.