Low-cost airline Monarch gave two passengers a special surprise when they were awarded with a free pair of flights, courtesy of the award-winning airline. Malcolm and Susan Atkins were Monarch’s 200,000th passengers on the Birmingham-Malaga route, one of Monarch’s most successful routes since commencing operations from the Midlands airport in Summer 2005.

The Atkins’, of Sutton Coldfield, were surprised at check-in by local radio station BRMB presenter Russ Morris and, as well as the pair of free flights, were also given complimentary extra legroom seating and free meals and drinks on both their outbound and return flights.

Susan Atkins said, “We are extremely surprised but what a wonderful way to start our holiday. We often travel with Monarch to Spain as we have found their service to be far better than that of other airlines, and we are looking forward to using our unexpected but very welcome flights soon!”

Tim Jeans, Managing Director of Monarch’s scheduled services, said: “We are delighted to surprise Mr & Mrs Atkins with these flights and hope that they will continue to be a part of the rapidly-increasing passenger numbers at Birmingham.

“Since Monarch arrived in the Midlands during the summer of 2005, Malaga in particular has been one of our most popular routes, shown by our achieving 60% market share in August 2006 and carrying more passengers than all other scheduled carriers combined during this month and since.

“Next year we are increasing our services to Malaga with up to 12 flights per week on state-of-the-art Airbus A321 aircraft, all of which will have 48 pre-bookable extra legroom seats, meaning there will be plenty of opportunity for Midlands travellers to sample southern Spain with Monarch.”

Monarch operates scheduled flights to Spain and Portugal from Birmingham International Airport and was named as Leisure Airline of the Year in recent Travel Industry Awards. Fares on Monarch flights include complimentary daily newspapers, a refreshing hot towel service and require no additional payment for checking-in baggage; also available is a unique range of tasty hot and cold meals with prices from GBP3.00. Seats can be pre-booked at GBP5 per one-way flight to avoid the last minute free-for-all, or for only GBP15, why not try one of the 48 extra-legroom seats which offer up to six inches of extra space? Regular travellers are rewarded too, with a range of benefits through the airline’s loyalty scheme, Vantage Club.

Passengers travelling on scheduled flights from Birmingham can also avoid the queues at the airport and take advantage of online check-in which is available between 24 and 4 hours prior to departure, or from 36 hours if you are a Vantage Club member.
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