The Government and Gibraltar Airport say they are pleased to report that Monday’s four CAA sponsored flights, which replaced the cancelled Monarch flights, were handled successfully and largely without incident.

In total 216 passengers left for Gatwick and Luton from the Airport, while approximately 200 passengers were provided with coaches to Malaga Airport from where their replacement aircraft, which could not land at Gibraltar, departed to Manchester and Birmingham.

Yesterday, the CAA website reported that two replacement aircraft will depart from Gibraltar Airport and today, 4 October, the details of the three replacement aircraft are already available on: www.monarch.caa.co.uk/customers/i-am-currently-abroad/my-new- flight/gibraltar/gibraltar-gib/

The Birmingham and Luton flights have been amalgamated into one flight, with the aircraft landing in Luton; Birmingham passengers will be provided with bus transport to take them onwards to their final destination.

The Office of Fair Trading, Consumer Protection Department, has provided the following advice for passengers who booked flights with Monarch and wish to seek redress for the services not provided:

Travelling to UK on or before the 15th October? - You may not need to re-book the outbound portion of your flight with an alternative airline. Check the following website for details on your new flight arranged by the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK : http://monarch.caa.co.uk. Details of flights should be available 48 hours before departure.

• Travel Insurance. If you have this type of cover please read your policy booklet carefully and confer directly with your travel insurance broker or provider for information relating to the type of cover they are able to provide you with. Please note however that you may find that ‘financial failure or insolvency’ is not included. 

• Contact your card issuer. If you paid with a credit card and the cost of each flight was over £100 you may be able to claim under section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1979. As this legislation makes the credit card company jointly liable together with the company providing the goods or service (in this case Monarch) to the consumer, you may want to contact the credit card company prior to making alternative bookings with another airline, to try and avoid forfeiting any rights afforded by this legislation. If you paid with your debit card or the cost of the flight was under £100 and you paid with your credit 
 card, you may be able to apply for charge back. Although there is no joint liability under these circumstances, the card company may be able to recover your money from the merchant’s bank. You would generally need to claim within 120 days from the day you became aware of the problem.
• Pay Pal – Contact them directly to try and seek reimbursement of your monies. 

• Travel Agent – If you booked your holiday with a travel agent this may qualify as a package holiday (e.g: a holiday made up of flights and accommodation) under the Package Travel, Package Holidays and Package Tours Act which may afford you extra rights. Contact your 
travel agent as they may be able to assist with alternative arrangements. 
Should you have any other queries please contact the Office of Fair Trading’s Consumer Protection Team on: e-mail: [email protected] Tel: 20071700