Monarch’s new summer routes take off from Birmingham

Monarch recently celebrated the launch of four new routes from Birmingham Airport. 

The airline will now fly to Valencia in Spain, Split in Croatia, Naples in Italy and Rhodes in Greece.

It is the only airline to fly to Split and Valencia from Birmingham with both destinations new to the summer 2017 network and holidays are also on sale to all of these destinations.

Monarch is also welcoming a Boeing 737 NG aircraft to its fleet at Birmingham. The aircraft’s first flight will be on June 29 to Rome.

Flights to Valencia operate twice a week on a Thursday and Saturday. Flights to Rhodes (once a week on a Wednesday) and new flights departing to Naples on Mondays and Fridays.

The new destination of Split will operate twice a week on Tuesday and Sunday.

The inaugural flights follow on from the launch of Stockholm and Porto in April with the airline now flying to both destinations three times a week.

Customers on the Valencia flight were treated to a glass of bubbly and slice of Paella themed cake to celebrate the inaugural flight to Valencia. Monarch’s chief commercial officer, Ian Chambers was joined by David Winstanley, Birmingham Airport’s chief operating officer at check-in with customers heading to the Spanish city.

Chambers said: “We are delighted to add even more flights and holidays to four new destinations to our Birmingham programme for summer 2017. These new routes join Porto and Stockholm which we launched earlier in the year. Monarch is the only airline to fly to both Split and Valencia from Birmingham Airport.

“We’re really pleased to be flying a greatly expanded programme from Birmingham for the summer with more city and beach destinations. It’s also really exciting to welcome the Boeing 737 NG aircraft to the fleet for the busy summer schedule ahead of the first of our new 737 Max 8 aircraft arriving in April next year.”

David Winstanley, chief operating officer at Birmingham Airport, said: “Monarch offers a fantastic selection of popular European routes to our passengers from Birmingham Airport. It’s great to see them expanding this choice further for our summer holidaymakers.

“Valencia, Split, Naples and Rhodes are all steeped in history as well as being popular coastal destinations with fabulous ports and beaches. We are confident these will be very successful routes.”