Award winning airline, Monarch, is expanding its portfolio of flights to the Greek Islands for Summer 2010, with the addition of new weekly services from Gatwick and Manchester to Santorini. Flights are available to book now via www.monarch.co.uk.

Formed by an ancient volcanic eruption, Santorini is famed for having the best sunsets in the world and boasts an astonishing blend of scenery, radiant white villages and spellbinding archaeological sites. Combined with dramatic black sand beaches and sophisticated nightlife, this stunning island is one of the most famous holiday destinations in Greece and provides the perfect location for that dream Greek getaway.

Monarch’s new charter flights to Santorini operate weekly (every Tuesday) from Gatwick and Manchester between 05 May and 05 October 2010. Flights start from £160 return, inclusive of all taxes and charges and can be booked now via www.monarch.co.uk.

Monarch operates scheduled and charter flights from a number of UK airports, including Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester. Scheduled flights operate to destinations throughout Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Turkey and Gibraltar, whilst charter services operate worldwide. In addition to flights, Monarch also now offers a huge range of great value holidays, accommodation options, car hire and travel insurance, all of which can be booked via monarch.co.uk.

For further information or to book Monarch flights, Monarch Holidays or Monarch Hotels, please visit www.monarch.co.uk.

Mountain Paradise is offering a week’s ski package at the five star Grand Hotel Kempinski for just £995 per person, saving £550 and a three night weekend stay for £550 per person, saving £225. The offer is valid for departures on Thursdays (for weekend breaks)and Sundays (for week stays) for travel throughout February and March.

Both packages include return flights from London Luton to Poprad (two hours), return airport transfers, seven or three nights accommodation in a double room with breakfast and a six or two day ski pass for the resort of Strbske Pleso in Slovakia’s High Tatras.

The stunning Grand Hotel Kempinski overlooks a beautiful alpine lake in the mountain resort of Strbske Pleso. Facilities include a superb all day dining restaurant featuring mouthwatering international cuisine and local specialities, two bars and a 1,300 sqm Wellness Centre & Spa offering indoor pools, steam bath, various saunas, beauty and facial treatments and fully equipped fitness centre.

Glorious empty slopes, fantastic snow conditions and great prices make Slovakia’s Tatras Mountains an excellent choice for the 2009/10 season. The High Tatras have the highest peaks in the Carpathian mountain range and remain one of Europe’s best kept skiing secrets offering perfect terrain for families, novices and intermediates alike. Mountain Paradise was established in 2003 and is the only ATOL bonded operator specialising solely in the Tatra mountains.

It would seem that not everyone is dreaming of a white Christmas this year as award winning low fares airline Monarch gets set to fly almost 140,000 customers to warmer climes in Europe for the festive period.

Between Friday 18 December and Monday 04 January 10, Monarch will operate 1,724 scheduled flights to some of Europe’s key hotspots with top destinations this year being Tenerife, Malaga and Alicante, where temperatures of up to 21 degrees will be enjoyed this Christmas period – up to 17 degrees warmer than the UK can expect.

Despite the current economic climate Brits are still looking to escape the winter chill with a recent online survey by www.monarch.co.uk revealing that 86% of respondents are planning to holiday in sunnier climes this winter season.

The poll, which ran on www.monarch.co.uk*asked visitors to the site if they were planning to take a holiday this winter. 86% responded yes they would be looking to escape for some winter sun, whilst a further 6% answered yes and stated they were planning a skiing trip. Only 8% of all respondents said they were not planning a holiday this winter season.

If you haven’t yet booked and fancy enjoying the festivities away from home or seeing the New Year in overseas it’s not too late to grab a great deal to the sun with Monarch – just visit monarch.co.uk where the lowest fares are always available.

Monarch operates scheduled flights to Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal and Cyprus from Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester airports. In addition to year-round low fares, Monarch also offers a unique range of tasty hot and cold food onboard with prices from £2.00.

To enable customers to select where in the cabin they sit and ensure that families and groups sit together, seats can be pre-booked at £7.50 per one-way flight, or from only £15, extra-legroom seats are available, which offer up to six inches of extra space.

Passengers travelling on scheduled flights can also avoid the queues at the airport and take advantage of online check-in which is available between seven days and 4.5 hours prior to departure.

In addition to flights, Monarch also now offers a huge range of great value holidays, accommodation options, car hire and travel insurance.

For further information or to book Monarch flights, Monarch Holidays or Monarch Hotels, please visit www.monarch.co.uk.

2009 News – Flights – Monarch launches onboard recycling in Manchester

Award winning airline Monarch is rolling out its onboard recycling programme to include flights from Manchester, meaning that all aluminium, plastic, glass and paper used during a flight will now be recycled on landing.

Monarch has pioneered the scheme since 2007, ahead of other UK carriers, as part of its MAP initiative (Monarch and the Planet), through which all aspects of the airline’s business are being evaluated as it strives to improve its environmental footprint. The launch of the onboard recycling scheme in Manchester on 01 December 2009 follows successful launches in Gatwick and Birmingham over the past few years, where feedback from passengers and crew has been positive.

The scheme will see all recyclable items, such as aluminium drinks cans, plastic wine and water bottles, glass wine and champagne bottles plus newspapers/magazines placed into a separate recycling bag by cabin crew during the flight. This will subsequently be passed over to cleaning staff at Manchester Airport on the flight’s arrival for recycling.

Commenting on the launch of the scheme, managing director of Monarch Airlines, Tim Jeans said, “Monarch has been operating a full onboard recycling programme on flights into Gatwick and Birmingham for a number of years and is delighted to be extending this to include services in Manchester.

“With 70% of the waste generated in the cabin being potentially recyclable, Monarch has been working with Manchester Airport on the initiative to ensure that the recyclable waste is removed from the aircraft on arrival and recycled appropriately. We are looking to extend the scheme to include all Monarch flights over the coming months and we urge our other UK and European airports to introduce the necessary recycling infrastructure to allow us to do so”.

Monarch is one of the UK’s largest leisure airlines, operating both charter and scheduled flights. The airline is the principal independent supplier of charter seats to tour operators large and small, flying to around 100 destinations across Europe, America, Africa and Asia from the UK’s principal and regional airports.

The scheduled service division of Monarch Airlines offers low cost services from Birmingham, London Luton, London Gatwick and Manchester Airports to destinations in Spain, Portugal, Gibraltar and Cyprus.

In addition to flights, Monarch also now offers a huge range of great value holidays, accommodation options, car hire and travel insurance.

For further information or to book Monarch flights, Monarch Holidays or Monarch Hotels, please visit www.monarch.co.uk.

London Luton Airport celebrates the 2nd anniversary of flights to Transylvania, Romania with Wizz Air.

With over 120,000 passengers already taking flights to/from Dracula’s homeland in Transylvania, the route which operates five times per week has been a fang-tastic success since launch back in October 2007.

With Halloween fast approaching now is the perfect time to visit Dracula’s homeland by taking a low cost flight from London Luton with Wizz Air. Transylvania is a region rich in folklore and tradition, offering warm hospitality as well as myth, mystery and legend. Historic medieval towns blend the art and culture of three civilizations whilst ancient citadels, fortified churches and castles stand guard over this province encircled by the Carpathian Mountains – a paradise for riding, walking or mountain biking.

Simon Harley, Business Development Manager at London Luton Airport, said, “We are delighted with the success of the Transylvania route, one of 15 destinations now operated by Wizz Air, an important partner in the ongoing success of the airport”.

Wizz Air is the largest low cost airline based in Central and Eastern Europe and operates a young fleet of Airbus A320 aircraft. From London Luton, Wizz Air operates to 15 destinations with flights to Bourgas, Bucharest, Budapest, Cluj-Napoca (Transylvania), Gdansk, Katowice, Kiev, Poznan, Prague, Sofia, Timisoara, Varna, Warsaw, Wroclaw and Zagreb.

The prestigious Business Travel Awards are judged by an impressive panel of judges ranging from senior business travel buyers, together with leading business travel journalists. The nomination recognises the convenience of traveling from London Luton as well as the many new services and improvements that have been introduced with the business traveler in mind. The Airport will be judged against criteria such as quality of service, value for money and range of products and services.

The nomination reflects the improvements that have been made at London Luton over the last year. The airport has made significant investment to improve access and is now more convenient and faster to get to with an upgraded public transport interchange, new and enlarged drop off zone and improved short term car park. Road and rail access are now better than ever with the completion of the M1 motorway widening, dual carriageway link to the airport and excellent rail services to central London taking as little as 20 minutes.

All on site car parks are just a short distance from the terminal and the new ‘Priority parking‘ service offers parking adjacent to the terminal building. Once in the airport, ‘ Priority Lane’ offers the fastest route to security and is available to purchase online or at the airport for just £3.00. This innovative service allows passengers to go directly to the security search point and is ideal for passengers on a tight schedule or those simply looking for the ultimate in convenience.

New initiatives such as ‘Priority parking‘ and ‘Priority Lane’ drive down the already fast times from Check-in to gate, add in priority boarding available with a number of London Luton airlines and the speed from check-in to plane for the business traveler is faster still.

Wizz Air, the largest low fare – low cost airline in Central and Eastern Europe, enhances its bus transfer service between London Luton Airport and central London. The new bus service will be available from 20 October 2009.

Tickets for the Green Line 757 coach service can be already be booked on wizzair.com for as low as 10 GBP one way. The buses operate between London Luton Airport and Victoria Station 24 hours a day, up to every 20 minutes.