Airlines gone but not forgotten at Birmingham Airport: Monarch Airlines
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One of the many budget airlines that used to have many routes in and out of Birmingham Airport was Monarch Airlines. With their distinctive yellow, white and navy blue planes. Mostly Boeing 737-800's. In their later years they also had Airbus A320-200's and A321-200's. I mostly saw them at Birmingham Airport between 2012 and 2017. Some views from the train, some airside.
Monarch Airlines, usually known as just Monarch was founded in 1967. It later became a low-cost airline. Originally a British charter and scheduled airline, they abandoned charter flying completely in 2004. Their headquarters was in Luton. They also had bases in Birmingham, Leeds/Bradford, Gatwick and Manchester. Monarch collapsed into administration in 2017, leaving 100,000 passengers and holiday makers stranded overseas. Two years later (in 2019) Thomas Cook collapsed, and earlier in 2020, Flybe also ceased to exist.
Here we will just be looking at Monarch.
Before I had ever taken photos of Monarch planes taking off or landing at Birmingham Airport, I once saw the Monarch Beach in Chamberlain Square during June 2009. They were advertising the kind of holidays you could go with them to mainland Europe and beyond.
I had originally posted these three photos in this post A variety of events that were held in Chamberlain Square until 2015.
dndimg alt="Monarch beach" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Chamberlain Square beach (June 2009) (1).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
BRMB provided the entertainment (now part of Free Radio).
dndimg alt="Monarch beach" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Chamberlain Square beach (June 2009) (2).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
The fake beach had purple and white deckchairs on the sand in Chamberlain Square. But Monarch was not just about flying to beaches on the continent.
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In June 2012 we were at Birmingham Airport, heading to catch our flight to Naples International Airport (Aeroporto Internazionale di Napoli) with Thomson Airways when I saw this Monarch plane. With the slogan Fly your way, Every way.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (1).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
It wouldn't be until the June 2014 holiday to Classical Spain that we would fly with Monarch. Taking us to Málaga Airport (Málaga–Costa del Sol Airport / Aeropuerto de Málaga-Costa del Sol). There was quite a few Monarch planes outside of the terminal building. The plane we would go on would be an Airbus A321-200.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (2).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
Luggage getting loaded onto this Monarch plane on the left.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (3).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
The airbridge to this Monarch plane was sponsored by RSC: Royal Shakespeare Company. Experience a different kind of Theatre.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (4).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
I saw this Monarch plane from the plane window of the Monarch plane I had just got on board, so had just put my seat belt on, our hand luggage going into the overhead storage locker and so on. Before taxiing to the runway and taking off.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (5).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
One week later, after a wonderful holiday around Classical Spain (including Seville and Granada) we flew back from Málaga, and I took this photo of the Monarch plane (after heading down the steps but before heading to the bus). There was a French Air Traffic Control strike at the time, so we spent much longer at Málaga Airport than expected. And when we did take off from Spain, we flew over Portugal and the North Atlantic Ocean, avoiding French airspace. Eventually flying back into UK airspace over Cornwall and Wales. At the time I did not know that this would be the last time that we would fly with Monarch!
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (6).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
A few years later now, around March 2016 and I saw this Monarch plane come into land from the Sheldon Country Park. This was after I headed to the park to see the Emirates Airbus A380 come into land at Birmingham Airport for the first time, and there was a large crowd in the park to see it! After that, I walked back to Marston Green Station to get a train to Birmingham New Street one way.
See my posts on Emirates Airbus A380 and the Sheldon Country Park.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (7).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
In October 2016, I had caught a train at Birmingham International Station, after attending Destination Star Trek Europe at the NEC. On the way back to Birmingham New Street, I saw this Monarch plane at Birmingham Airport.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (8).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
The Monarch hanger and a Monarch plane seen from Car Park 5 at Birmingham Airport during December 2016. This was actually a view of a Ryanair plane that had just landed, but I've cropped it to mostly just show Monarch. I had got off the X1 NXWM Platinum bus near the car park, for a bit of plane spotting.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (9).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
The next time I saw some Monarch planes on the tarmac was from a train I was on coming back from a day out around Rugby during April 2017.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (10).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
It's a bit difficult from the train getting plane photos at Birmingham Airport without getting passing trees in the way. In this view a pair of Monarch planes.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (11).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
The next time I saw the Monarch planes on the tarmac at Birmingham Airport was after the airline had gone out of business during October 2017. Monarch went into administration on the 2nd of October 2017, and the time I saw them was on the 7th of October 2017. I was on a train heading to Coventry (it was the day I went to check out the Coventry Canal Basin).
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (12).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
There was at least 3 Monarch planes here, next to a Flybe plane in Welcome to Yorkshire livery. The Air Traffic Control Tower is seen to the right.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (13).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
Also visible with the three Monarch planes and the solo Flybe plane was Qatar Airways. Other airlines such as Qatar were used at the time to get stranded passengers overseas back home to the UK. To the right of the Air Traffic Control Tower is a Travelodge hotel.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (14).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
The further the train went past, the harder it was to see a Monarch plane. This one was behind several buses (the ones that you use when you get off a plane and go down the steps, or vice versa if the airbridge can't be used). I wouldn't see these planes in the final Monarch livery ever again.
dndimg alt="Monarch Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Monarch Airlines BHX (15).JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
Coming back from Barcelona Airport (Josep Tarradellas Barcelona–El Prat Airport / Aeroport Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat / Aeropuerto Josep Tarradellas Barcelona-El Prat) with Ryanair in May 2019, I saw this Olympus plane on the tarmac (at Birmingham Airport). Clearly it was a former Monarch plane. You can tell by the yellow, white and navy blue colours. It was one of Monarch's former Airbus A321-200 planes.
dndimg alt="Olympus Airlines" dndsrc="../uploadedfiles/Olympus Airlines BHX.JPG" style="width: 100%;" />
In the future, I might do Birmingham Airport planes posts on:
- Thomas Cook Airlines (defunct)
- BMI Baby (defunct)
- Ryanair
- Thomson Airways (now TUI)
- Flybe (now defunct - could do one on the Embraer 175 or 195)
- Qatar Airways
- Easyjet
- Jet2
- Emirates (a post about the Boeing 777)
To name a few that I can think of.
Links to existing plane related posts:
- Flybe Bombardier Dash 8 Q400
- Emirates Airbus A380
- British Airways diverts
Photos taken by Elliott Brown.
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Birmingham We Are People with Passion award winner 2020