We're all too quick to criticise the Government but the way it has handled the Monarch collapse has been excellent IMHO.
I've just returned from Palma, Majorca on a CAA arranged flight after Monarch went bust and I have to congratulate them on a job well done. This morning at Palma airport there were British Govt officials on site at check-in and the formalities went ahead smoothly considering that they were combining flights to Gatwick, Manchester and Brum into a single flight back to the UK. I think a few people were gobsmacked when they realised that a Jumbo 747-400 was their plane. OK it was an old bus chartered from "Vamos Air" of Madrid but it made it back to Gatwick in one piece
I was dreading the whole Gatwick transfer process but there were loads of helpful CAA officials on site to advise and direct to the waiting buses. I was very impressed that the plane landed at 1355hrs and the bus back to Manchester actually pulled away from the kerb en-route at 1450hrs. That's less than one hour from landing to clearing customs, retrieve bags (Including one golf bag), find coaches, load bags and get underway. We arrived at Manchester at 2015hrs so made pretty good progress in some lousy wet weather.
It was a long day but made far easier by some excellent planning by the CAA.
Well done!

It's amazing isn't it.

Especially that the first evacuation flights were in Majorca etc about an hour after Monarch went bust...

It's almost as if they knew!

It's nice to here some positives from a shite situation as that.

The cynic in me seems to believe that if it wasn't the Tory Party conference this week with the PM's position hanging by a thread that the money might not have been so quick to be given to the CAA. They were given a blank cheque and rightly so.

Glad it didn't ruin your trip and it is nice to know when poop hits the fan they are agencies that can pull their finger out and organise something as large as this so quickly with relative smoothness

criminalclaret wrote:It's nice to here some positives from a shite situation as that.

The cynic in me seems to believe that if it wasn't the Tory Party conference this week with the PM's position hanging by a thread that the money might not have been so quick to be given to the CAA. They were given a blank cheque and rightly so.

Glad it didn't ruin your trip and it is nice to know when poop hits the fan they are agencies that can pull their finger out and organise something as large as this so quickly with relative smoothness

Oh my lord, do have a day off.

Seriously, are you that f ucking thick in real life?

starting_11 wrote:Seriously, are you that f ucking thick in real life?

Seriously, are you that f ucking ignorant in real life?

prit stick nt working to keep letters in correct place
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Logistically it was an amazing and was weeks in the planning.

In many other parts of the world there would have been no plan or action.

Hapag Lloyd wrote:Seriously, are you that f ucking ignorant in real life?

Ignorant of what?

Complete ***** who make an absolute nonsense link between "THE torys" and the CAA?

No, I'm not. That's why I called him out.

We are due to fly from Faro on the 12th......just a couple of days before the repatriation exercise comes to an end so we have to be thankful for that and concur that the CAA appear to be dealing with that matter as well as one could have hoped. I am getting a flavour of the difficulties with this huge logistic issue and that they are amalgamating passengers that have different UK destinations but It does irk me that we have to fly into Gatwick and then be bussed to Manchester and Birmingham. Why not fly into Manchester and bus people back to Gatwick or perhaps into Birmingham which is the middle of the country and then bus people to Manchester and Gatwick. This could start another debate. There are probably logistic reasons why this is being arranged in the way it is but I cannot help feeling that once again we have this north and south divide where the south (Home Counties) receives priority over the north and we must not inconvenience our southern populas

Rant over. Will be delighted when I put the key in my front door.

I was tickled when they said there are no planes available.
Currently there are an enormous number of Monarch planes, pilots and crew with very little to do.
Why can't government acquire them for the duration?

piston broke wrote:I was tickled when they said there are no planes available.
Currently there are an enormous number of Monarch planes, pilots and crew with very little to do.
Why can't government acquire them for the duration?

Because the planes will be leased and be property of the funder and no longer monarchs. The pilots are no longer able to fly something to do with liability insurance

Ayamonte wrote:We are due to fly from Faro on the 12th......just a couple of days before the repatriation exercise comes to an end so we have to be thankful for that and concur that the CAA appear to be dealing with that matter as well as one could have hoped. I am getting a flavour of the difficulties with this huge logistic issue and that they are amalgamating passengers that have different UK destinations but It does irk me that we have to fly into Gatwick and then be bussed to Manchester and Birmingham. Why not fly into Manchester and bus people back to Gatwick or perhaps into Birmingham which is the middle of the country and then bus people to Manchester and Gatwick. This could start another debate. There are probably logistic reasons why this is being arranged in the way it is but I cannot help feeling that once again we have this north and south divide where the south (Home Counties) receives priority over the north and we must not inconvenience our southern populas

Rant over. Will be delighted when I put the key in my front door.

Ayamonte: Not true unfortunately. I felt the same as you but when I checked they were flying to Gatwick one day and then Manchester the next. It was the luck of the draw. I drew the short straw but was very relaxed about the issue and TBH no one complained too much.

dpinsussex wrote:Because the planes will be leased and be property of the funder and no longer monarchs. The pilots are no longer able to fly something to do with liability insurance

But wouldn't the funder be happy to lease them to the government rather than standing idle?

CaptJohn wrote:Ayamonte: Not true unfortunately. I felt the same as you but when I checked they were flying to Gatwick one day and then Manchester the next. It was the luck of the draw. I drew the short straw but was very relaxed about the issue and TBH no one complained too much.

Thanks Captain. Good point. Just to add that after checking each day the morning flights from Faro that were originally scheduled by Monarch (ours is a morning flight), every one has gone to Gatwick. Even tomorrow's late flight out of Faro to Manchester is going to Gatwick. Can't even see a short straw at this point so managing my expectations somewhat. What will be will be and never mind, weather superb and 31C today.

starting_11 wrote:Ignorant of what?

Complete ***** who make an absolute nonsense link between "THE torys" and the CAA?

No, I'm not. That's why I called him out.

Hhhmmmm....... Let's just straighten this out slightly.

Firstly, I wasn't just using a cheap link 'Somethings happens, quick let's blame Labour/Democrats/Republicans/Trump/Corbyn/May' I try to put my point accross a bit more maturely than mud slinging for the sake of a conversation.

Secondly, I am so glad that the CAA were given the resources and funds to do what they could to get people back. It is a massive operation, and I'm glad they are succeeding. Who wouldn't want them to succeed? With a £60M + bill being charged to the government they can focus on the operation ahead and not worry about who was going to pay for it.

Thirdly, just our of interest with the licence being revoked, why didn't the government just step in, buy Monarch from the liquidators, get everyone passenger back while was out of the country? Then liquidise it /sell it to another company? Free market economy why it failed, and blue governments don't like doing that.

So yeah, on one of the biggest weeks of her and the party during the year, it would be reasonable to think that in order to avoid a bit of embarrassment that you would right a blank check to sort it out. Had those factors not been the case, I do believe I that the funds would not be so forthcoming. So thats my oppinion, no bother.

Hopefully that find will be extended to retrain and requalify the 1900 staff who lost their jobs as well?