Monarch have decided (quite rightly) that they have not enough pilots to cover the summer and just enough pilots to cover the winter.
End result is that they are offering temporary contracts only for the summer (May - October).
A guess at the numbers involved are about 30 temporary contracts, the majority of which are 200 hr CTC cadets. There are two courses for the A320/321 in Jan/Feb 2004 and one course for the B757 in Feb 2004. The CTC cadets are chosen because they are, generally, able and it keeps the accountants happy.
An advertisement on the BALPA website indicates that they are looking for a small number of type-rated people (about two on each fleet B757/A320/A300) for temporary FO contracts as well.
No permanent contracts at the moment.
Five permanent commands and twelve summer commands are appearing this spring.
Monarch, in my view, has good conditions of service and as good a pension as you could expect in the present market but this is only in comparison to the lack of quality elsewhere.
Very few First Officers leave for the above reasons so Monarch have experience levels well above the industry norm in the right hand seat.
Downside is time to command - very difficult to quantify with only five a year being given out.
Upside is that they have a fairly large retirement bulge amongst Captains in the next 5-6 years or so.
Seniority list indicates about 285 pilots at present.
24 aircraft for the summer - 22 for the winter.
All the best