East Midlands Airport: Monarch to take over bmibaby routes

Monarch Airlines has confirmed it will be taking over some routes to Portugal and Spain from East Midlands Airport, from bmibaby.

The budget airline will be grounded from September, with some routes being stopped from June after British Airways bought BMI from Lufthansa.

Monarch said it would start flying from East Midlands to Malaga, Alicante, Palma and Faro from late summer.

The sale of bmibaby has put 470 jobs at risk at its Castle Donington base.

<bold>'Underserved' region</bold>

Ken O'Toole, chief commercial officer for East Midlands Airport's owners MAG, said: "Whilst we're sorry to see the closure of bmibaby, Spain and Portugal are extremely popular destinations with our passengers.

"We are delighted Monarch Airlines is taking advantage of this opportunity."

Managing director of Monarch Airlines, Kevin George, added: "It has become clear that the Midlands will be underserved as a region in the future.

"The launch of operations from East Midlands makes perfect sense for Monarch."

bmibaby is currently losing about £25m a year.

The changes mean all bmibaby flights to and from Belfast will cease, from 11 June.

Services from East Midlands to Amsterdam, Paris, Geneva, Nice, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Newquay, and from Birmingham to Knock and Amsterdam, will cease on the same date.

All bmibaby flights will cease to operate from Monday 10 September.