Monarch extends online check-in

Online check-in with Monarch is being extended to passengers travelling on scheduled flights from overseas airports.

Check-in online can be used by passengers with pre-allocated seats using scheduled flights from Alicante, Barcelona, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Majorca, Malaga, Menorca, Murcia and Tenerife.

The service is available between seven days and 4.5 hours prior to departure.

It is designed to help cut time spent at the airport and to ensure that seating on flights is allocated in advance.

Passengers using online check-in and travelling with hand-baggage only can go directly to the departure gate on arrival at the airport.

Those with hold baggage have to take their bags to a fast bag drop desk, where they will be tagged as normal and sent to the aircraft.

Monarch scheduled service division managing director Liz Savage said: “We have seen overwhelming demand for online check-in from our UK bases, with up to 25% of scheduled passengers taking advantage of the service, so we are delighted to now offer it from our overseas airports as well.

“The introduction of overseas online check-in will speed up the check-in process for a large number of our passengers and reduce the queuing time spent at the airport when they are returning to the UK in addition to their outbound flight.”

For more information, visit the Monarch website>>

Monarch expands Canary Islands services

New year-round scheduled flights to Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura are being started by Monarch.

Services to the Canary island destinations will run from Birmingham, Gatwick, Luton and Manchester airports.

One flight a week will operate to Gran Canaria from Birmingham and up to two flights a week will operate from London Gatwick and Manchester from October 19.

One flight a week will operate to Fuerteventura from Birmingham, Gatwick and Luton and up to two flights a week from Manchester from October 21.

Flights have gone on sale via the airline’s website for travel until March 27, 2010, with fares including taxes starting at £52.99 one way.

The introduction of services to Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura brings the total number of flights operated by Monarch to the Canary Islands to up to 64 a week, with almost 500,000 seats available this winter – a 32% increase on last year.

Monarch flights and holidays managing director Liz Savage said: “We are delighted to be expanding our network to the Canary Islands with the launch of scheduled flights to Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura in addition to our existing routes to Tenerife and Lanzarote.

“We are seeing huge demand for our mid-haul destinations – in June we carried 59% more customers to Lanzarote and 16% more customers to Tenerife compared to June 2008 and the addition of Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura means even more people can take advantage of our low fares and award-winning onboard service to these popular sunshine islands this winter.

For more information, visit the Monarch website>>