Monarch Holdings plc

The holding company of The Monarch Group is Monarch Holdings plc. The principal subsidiaries are Monarch Airlines, Monarch Aircraft Engineering, First Aviation and a number of household-name tour operators such as Cosmos Holidays, Avro, Archers Direct and Cosmos Tours and Cruises, as well as the online hotel booking service somewhere2stay.com.

Monarch Airlines

A major part of The Monarch Group, Monarch Airlines operates a fleet of 32 aircraft on scheduled and charter flights from a number of UK airports, including Birmingham, East Midlands, Leeds Bradford, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester. Flying to more than 50 destinations worldwide, it carries in excess of 6.5 million sector passengers every year. The airline is also a key supplier of aircraft and seats to the tour operating industry.

Monarch Airlines' main activities are organised as follows:

• Scheduled Activities - low fare, convenient flights that can be booked direct online, by telephone, or through travel agents, which operate primarily to France, Spain, Portugal, the Canary and Balearic Islands, Cyprus, Egypt, Italy, Greece, Turkey and Germany.
• Charter Activities - through First Aviation the Group is the UK's largest independent charter airline, flying more than 2.5 million sector passengers to over 50 mid and long-haul destinations worldwide every year. The Group has a wide range of long established relationships with tour operators, from household-names to specialist travel businesses, while the ad-hoc division services the needs of major organisations, corporations and sporting institutions.
• Airline Operations - newly organised separately within the Group's aviation activities, this division manages all aspects of the safe and efficient airline operations supporting the Scheduled and Charter Activities, and Tour Operations.

Other aviation activities include cargo operations and aircraft leasing.

Tour Operations

Having been in operation for some 50 years, Cosmos Holidays is one of the oldest and well established brands in UK tour operating, and provides holidays to over 780,000 customers in 65 destinations annually. Cosmos is the UK's largest independent tour operator. Cosmos Coach Tours remains the world's largest European coach tour operator with escorted coach touring programmes throughout Europe, North America and worldwide. The Cosmos air and coach programmes offer a wide range of high quality products and great value holidays to both short and long haul destinations. Also offered are the lifestyle programmes through its long haul Distant Dreams, Villas with Pools, All Inclusive and Dream Weddings brochures.

Part of the Cosmos Holidays programme since 2002, the accommodation only brand, somewhere2stay, supplies hotel, apartment and villa accommodation around the world to the UK travel trade.

Also based within the tour operating business is Avro, the UK's leading charter flight-only operator and voted the UK's Best Seat-Only Operator by travel agents for 10 years consecutively, which offers a broad range of charter seat availability, duration and prices - offering flights to some 40 destinations from up to 8 UK airports. This business is expanding to meet the demand from the growing dynamic packaging sector and from overseas property buying especially in Eastern Mediterranean destinations such as Cyprus, Turkey and Bulgaria, selling overall in excess of 1 million flight sectors annually.

The tour operations also include Archers Direct which is one of the UK's leading direct-sell tour operators offering a selection of escorted coach touring, resort stay and cruising holidays worldwide.

Retail and Online Activities

A newly established division, Retail and Online Activities is focused on the strengthening and development of the Group's existing online and retail capability for all of its products in Scheduled and Charter Activities and Tour Operations. Based in Luton, it operates in support of all the Group's locations, products, destinations and customer relationships.

Monarch Aircraft Engineering

Monarch Aircraft Engineering Ltd provides maintenance and technical support to airlines of all sizes, helping them to meet the challenges of today’s demanding and cost-driven marketplace. Employing over 650 staff, the company has two Base Maintenance facilities at London Luton Airport and Manchester Airport, eleven permanent Line Stations based at airports in the UK, Europe and Asia as well as three seasonal Line Stations in Europe and Asia.

A sister company Monarch Technical Support has a strong reputation for the provision of highly qualified engineers to airlines, third party maintenance organisations and corporate fixed base operations.