2009 News - Flights - Monarch carries 3.9 million scheduled passengers in 2008

05 01 2009

Award-winning low fare airline Monarch celebrated a record-breaking year carrying 3.9 million* scheduled passengers during 2008 compared to 3.7 million passengers carried during 2007 – a 6.5% increase year-on-year.

Load factor for scheduled flights during 2008 also increased with an average of 81.47% compared to 80.53% in 2007 – a 1.16% increase year-on-year.

The launch of five new routes during the year helped passenger numbers surge with the introduction of London Gatwick to Cyprus and Menorca, plus Manchester to Gibraltar, Cyprus and Murcia.

Passenger traffic for December also continued to rise with the airline carrying 185,028 passengers on its scheduled services, a 0.37% increase on December 2007.

Monarch’s passenger statistics for scheduled services during December 2008:

Passenger numbers (1):

December 2008: 185,028

December 2007: 184,518

Percentage change: +0.37%

Load factor (2):

December 2008: 73%

December 2007: 73.02%

Percentage change: -0.02%

Internet sales percentage (3):

December 2008: 87%

December 2007: 87%

Percentage change: 0%

Overall, for both scheduled and charter services, Monarch carried a total of 299,628 passengers during December 2008.

1. Represents the number of earned seats flown by Monarch. Earned seats include seats that are flown whether or not the passenger turns up because once a flight has departed a no-show customer is not entitled to change flights or seek a refund.

2. Represents the number of passengers as a proportion of the number of seats available for passengers.

3. Represents the percentage of total seats sold via www.monarch.co.uk.

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Notes to editors:

*Represents the number of earned seats flown by Monarch’s scheduled services. Earned seats include seats that are flown whether or not the passenger turns up because once a flight has departed, a no-show customer is not entitled to change flights or seek a refund.

The exact number of passengers carried on scheduled flights during 2008 was 3,971,547 compared to 3,730,433 during 2007.

Monarch operates scheduled flights to Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal and Cyprus from Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester airports. In addition to year-round low fares, Monarch also offers a unique range of tasty hot and cold meals onboard with prices from £3.00. Seats can be pre-booked at £6 per one-way flight to avoid the last minute free-for-all experienced on some other airlines, or from only £15, extra-legroom seats are available, which offer up to six inches of extra space.

Passengers travelling on scheduled flights can also avoid the queues at the airport and take advantage of online check-in which is available between seven days and 4.5 hours prior to departure.

For more information or to book, visit www.monarch.co.uk.