Concerns as Atol licensing deadline passes for flight firm

arrived at Stansted on Wednesday, with another eight at Hamad international airport in Doha, Qatar, to help should Monarch fold.

The future of Monarch, Britain’s fifth biggest carrier, is hanging by a thread after a deadline to renew their Atol licence, which allows them to sell package holidays, expired at midnight last night.

The company had been granted a 24 hour extension to give bosses time to show to the CAA that their finances were stable for the next 12 months.

While the threat to Monarch has come at a relatively quiet time for the airline, they fly about six million passengers a year to 40 destinations.

Monarch issued a short statement confirming flights were operating as scheduled but gave no guarantees any further forward.

They said: “Any changes to the forward schedule will be communicated to all our customers.”

The company were issuing the same advice to people due to fly as early as today who, desperate for information, took to social media to try to find out what was happened.

They included Callum Booth, booked on a flight from Manchester at 6.30am. He said: “What is the likelihood of flights to Turkey operating?” Another asked: “If you do go bust, will I get a refund on my flight only booking?”

The situation has become critical because it is believed investment firm Greybull Capital, who own 90 per cent of Monarch, have refused to pump in any extra cash.

Monarch’s future looked in doubt 12 months ago amid similar financial concerns.

On that occasion, Greybull promised to inject £165million into the business.

However, sources say the same is unlikely to happen this time because the market has become even more cut throat.

Hundreds of thousands of Monarch passengers who have booked flights with the airline, as well as through their package holiday arm, now face an agonising wait.

They include many families due to travel in the school half-terms later this month.

Fears over Monarch’s future have been fuelled by what experts say has been the airline’s deliberate move to hike prices to deter people from booking in recent days.

Prices on some routes have quadrupled.

By effectively no longer selling tickets, it would limit the impact if the company went to the wall.