Britain's Monarch Airlines goes bust, leaving thousands stranded

LONDON: Monarch Airlines collapsed on Monday, the biggest ever failure of a British airline, stranding tens of thousands of travellers overseas and prompting the country’s biggest-ever peacetime repatriation effort.

Monarch cancelled about 300,000 future bookings and apologised to customers and staff as it became the UK’s largest carrier to go into administration.

“I am so sorry that thousands now face a cancelled holiday or trip, possible delays getting home and huge inconvenience as a result of our failure,” Monarch Chief Executive Andrew Swaffield told employees in a message.

“I am truly sorry that it has ended like this.”

Transport secretary Chris Grayling said the company fell victim to a price war over flights to the Mediterranean and told customers not to come to airports.