Hundreds of jobs lost as Monarch airline’s engineering business collapses

The engineering arm of Monarch airlines has gone into administration resulting in the loss of almost 500 jobs.

Work at Monarch Aircraft Engineering’s (MAEL) base maintenance business, which undertakes aircraft overhaul and major heavy maintenance programmes, will be suspended immediately and around 250 employees have been made redundant.

A further 200 members of staff based in Luton will also be made redundant, with 83 retained temporarily to support the wind down of the business.

Monarch’s CAMO business, which updates airworthiness records and maintenance requirements for 33 aeroplanes, and the company’s training academy are still in operation and have been put up for sale.

The administration follows the collapse of Monarch Airlines in 2017, and the attempted restructuring of the company’s engineering division in October last year.

David Pike, restructuring partner at KPMG and joint administrator, said: “Following the administration of other Monarch entities in 2017, MAEL sought to build its customer base to replace the loss of business from the former airline.

"Through the insolvency of the airline however, the company inherited significant debts and claims. Every effort has been made to turnaround the business, including launching a CVA which sought to resolve these legacy debts.

"Unfortunately, following the CVA, a number of customers reduced or sought to terminate their relationship with MAEL, further adversely impacting the business.

“As a result, MAEL recently entered into talks with a number of potential parties with a view to selling all or parts of the business.

“While it is pleasing agreements with a number of operators have been secured to ensure continuity of service at the majority of MAEL’s line maintenance stations, with only partial offers forthcoming for the rest of the business, the directors have taken the difficult step to appoint administrators.”

Earlier this week, Monarch announced 182 jobs had been saved after its line maintenance operations at Gatwick, Birmingham, East Midlands, Newcastle and Glasgow Airports were transferred to Morson Group.

Luton Airport line maintenance operations have transferred to Storm Aviation and further operations at Manchester and Birmingham will be transferred to Flybe.