The Yorkshire Evening Post has interviewed Monarch's managing director today. He mentions that they have been looking to expand into Yorkshire area for some time and have been talking to LBA for quite a while.
It looks like Monarch have further plans for growth out of LBA. As he states the following: Expect further route announcements in the “next few weeks” and said that jobs would be created, although no figures were given.

Interesting times a head, Me thinks.

Leeds-Bradford Airport announces arrival of Monarch Airlines - Business Headlines - Yorkshire Evening Post

any schedules released for ema yet? :)

For an airline to spend time and energy on announcing a new set of flights, routes and schedules and to then fail to allow passengers to book is very odd. Seems to me like the back-end is unable to keep up with the front-end. Or perhaps signalling a change of direction?

Leading scheduled leisure airline, Monarch, last week announced it is to introduce additional frequencies and a new route from Birmingham airport this summer, plus launch a new base and flights from East Midlands airport.* These flights will be on sale from Friday 18 May 2012.

The routes, which have been announced in reaction to the news that bmibaby is to close, include new flights from East Midlands airport to Malaga, Alicante, Palma and Faro, plus additional frequencies from Birmingham airport to Malaga, Alicante, Faro, Rome and Palma.* There will also be a new route between Birmingham and Barcelona. The flights from Birmingham will operate in addition to Monarch’s existing network of services to Alicante, Almeria, Bodrum, Dalaman, Dubrovnik, Faro, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Grenoble*, Heraklion, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Larnaca, Madeira*, Majorca, Malaga, Menorca, Milan, Munich*, Paphos, Rome, Sharm el Sheikh*, Tenerife and Venice.*

Commenting on the new Midlands’ services, Managing Director of Monarch Airlines, Kevin George said, “Monarch is delighted to be launching the new and additional services from both Birmingham and East Midlands airports, which will support travellers in the region left without flights to some of their favourite leisure destinations once bmibaby closes.* The services, which account for 25% of bmibaby’s existing routes from the Midlands, will commence this summer and provide customers with a quality alternative for all their holiday flights.”

Monarch’s new and additional flights from Birmingham and East Midlands airports will be available to book via Monarch | Cheap Flights, Holidays & Hotels from Friday 18 May, when full schedules and timetables will be published.

why do airlines keep announcing routes from airports that are already awash with strong route networks?

i don't understand why they are not considering more protection for their airline by starting monopolistic routes from airports like Newquay, Bournemouth, Durham, Humberside etc etc

of course those airports have smaller catchments, but they are entirely YOUR catchments if you are the only airline.

To be fair Monarch are the biggest carrier based at BHX, so they are kinda a monopoly anyway? Although being a low cost carrier, they still offer superior customer care to the likes of Ryan Air and have a lot of history to support them in this major expansion. Doubling its capacity at BHX in a 12 month period. Here Here to Monarch i say!!

and they are having a further 2 aircraft based there, making the total up to 8 based a/c this summer.

Nakata77

I would say the cost of setting up a based operation (crew, aircraft) has a lot to do why airlines focus on main hubs, plus the airports you do mention have very small catchments and not enough I would say to support an A320 or A321 on the number of daily rotations needed to make this cost effective. Add in the increased APD which is making many think twice about taking non essential 'short break' flights and the nail is in the coffin for these type of airports getting a big based 'loco' style carrier. NQY in particular is very seasonal, ZB tried there before and got their fingers burnt. Just because you offer flights from an airport does not mean that they will fill up with pax just because they are offered, monopoly or not!

... although it is still possible to bring in smaller airports by using W pattern routes from the main bases.

Looking to book a flight back from Munich to London Luton in September. Surprisingly Monarch have flights available for 3 random dates in September, one of which is ideal for me. Flight code is ZB

Anyone able to tell me if the aircraft is returning on a positioning flight :) , a ski charter flight :) , or is it a football charter :{:{:{

If its the latter ill book elsewhere ;)

Thanks

ZB designators are all scheduled routes. MON is the charter designator.

MUC has this week been announced as a new route for Monarch. Unsure of the start date though.

Scheduled ZB flights to MUC start 24Sep to coincide with the start of Oktoberfest. Weekends served until clock change and then 4 x weekly from Nov.
Not football charters so rest assured....

When are the fleet renewal plans going to be announced.

Later in the year, if we are lucky.

What do you think they'll replace the a300's with

the w patterns ex NQY and ABZ were far froma flying success the last time..

CC, you're correct there, although that was in the PB/TJ era.............this is the era of IR, who I think we all have much more confidence in:)

The A300 will not be replaced by a wide-body aircraft.
Wide-body aircraft do not fit in with the ZB plans, they are to big.
In my opinion for the short term they will be replaced by more A320 or A321, until a final decision is made as per my previous post.

Does anyone know where the a/c that operated the NQY and ABZ routes was based?
I got the impression it was an actual base, not W pattern, so i'm interested to know if Monarch still do similar routes.
There's been a lot of talk within various forums of the potential of a base at CWL, but it appears there's bigger fish to fry at the moment.
Since the departure of WW, CWL has been crying out for a decent UK operator for the sun routes lost. It had always been said (obviously not confirmed) that CWL was a profitable summer base for WW, but struggled in the winter. With the above in mind, would Monarch consider W patterns into CWL, using a BHX a/c and crew? Is it in their current strategy, do they do it elsewhere?
Would the crew be able to transport to/from CWL after say a canaries flight and still make it home without the need for a hotel?
Apparently VY is already doing well with the ALC and PMI routes due to start soon, but WW also served the likes of MAH, IBZ, MJV and high frequency flights to FAO and AGP. CWL is crying out for more canaries and cyprus flights, especially in the winter, and potentially ski flights to boost the winter lull, something baby didnt, or couldn't tap into.
I personally believe that Monarch would be perfect for CWL, granted it would be a risk at first, but we've already seen the introduction of Cosmos to Wales with the SFB flights. Why not expand on that, create a new brand in Wales and claw back some of that leakage to the orange that goes over the bridge.

Monarch used to base an aircraft at AGP didn't they so It might of been there.

Not sure how you can tell how well the Vueling flights are doing, however the prices dont seem to be suggesting sell out