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!