LONDON: British authorities are scrambling to bring home 110,000 travelers after Monarch Airlines collapsed Monday, canceling all flights by what had been Britain’s fifth biggest carrier.
The Civil Aviation Authority said it has leased 30 aircraft to transport Monarch customers scattered around holiday destinations ranging from Turkey to Spain and Sweden. Flights will be provided at no additional cost to passengers.
“This is a hugely distressing situation for British holidaymakers abroad, and my first priority is to help them get back to the UK,” Transport Secretary Chris Grayling said in a statement. “That is why I have immediately ordered the country’s biggest ever peacetime repatriation to fly about 110,000 passengers who could otherwise have been left stranded.”
Monarch ceased operations after failing to reach a deal with regulators to extend the company’s license to sell package holidays to overseas destinations. Monarch Chief Executive Andrew Swaffield said the airline’s troubles stemmed from recent terror attacks in Egypt and Tunisia and the “decimation” of the tourist trade in Turkey.
The airline had tried to pivot from short-haul flights to long-haul travel to reduce losses as consumers shied away from Middle Eastern and North African destinations after the June 2015 attack on tourists at a resort in Tunisia, the bombing of a Russian airliner that had taken off from Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, a few months later and the attempted coup in Turkey in 2016.
The CAA is advising Monarch customers who are trying to get home from abroad to visit the agency’s website for information about their flights. Passengers who were preparing to leave the UK on Monarch flights should not go to the airport.
The first repatriation flight carrying 165 passengers from the Spanish resort island of Ibiza has already arrived at London’s Gatwick Airport, the aviation authority said.
“The scale and challenge of this operation means that some disruption is inevitable,” agency CEO Andrew Haines said. “We ask customers to bear with us as we work around the clock to bring everyone home.”
Monarch’s collapse represents the biggest ever failure of a British airline.
The Unite union, which represents around 1,800 engineers and cabin crew working for Monarch, claimed that the government rebuffed requests to provide a bridging loan that would have helped the airline keep operating.
The airline said companies affected by its failure include Monarch Airlines, Monarch Holidays, First Aviation, Avro, and Somewhere2stay.
“All future holidays and flights provided by these companies have been canceled and are no longer operating,” the company said.
Greybull Capital, which owns The Monarch Group, issued a statement saying it was “deeply saddened” by the airline’s failure. It said it was working with regulators to minimize disruptions.
— REUTERS
Monarch chief blames collapse on terror attacks
Monarch chief blames collapse on terror attacks
Saudi factories and mines grow sharply in 2025, new licenses jump 23%
JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia’s industrial and mining sectors surged in 2025, with 23 percent more licenses being issued than in the previous 12 months, according to official figures.
The 1,660 permits signed off by the Ministry of Industry and Mineral Resources were worth more than SR76 billion ($20.52 billion), and are expected to create nearly 35,000 jobs, with the increase pointing to growing investor appetite across the Kingdom.
Factory activity also accelerated in 2025, with 1,201 facilities commencing operations, up 11.7 percent from 2024, generating more than SR31 billion in capital and creating over 45,000 jobs as the Kingdom’s manufacturing base continues to expand.
The developments support Saudi Arabia’s National Industrial Strategy, launched by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in October 2022, that aims to drive sector growth and increase the number of factories in the Kingdom to 36,000 by 2035.
“This comes as part of the ministry’s ongoing efforts to achieve the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030, which aims to maximize the impact of industry and mining in diversifying the national economy,” the ministry’s release added.
The strategy focuses on 12 sub-sectors, targeting more than 800 investment opportunities worth SR1 trillion, striving toward tripling the industrial gross domestic product.
The ministry underlined that these indicators reflect its ongoing efforts to develop the mining sector, enhance its global competitiveness, and establish it as the third pillar of Saudi industry, while also highlighting the division’s rising attractiveness to investors.
The release explained that the ministry issued 736 new mining licenses in 2025, including 479 for exploration, 127 for building materials quarry, 61 for small mining and quarry exploitation, 52 for prospecting, and 17 surplus minerals.
By the end of 2025, the total number of active mining licenses in Saudi Arabia reached around 2,925, spanning numerous permit categories in the sector.
These included 1,553 for building materials quarry, 1,018 for exploration, 275 for small-scale mining and quarrying, 67 for prospecting, and 12 for surplus mineral licenses.
The Kingdom has become one of the fastest-growing mining investment environments globally, supported by rapid license issuance, investor incentives, and readily accessible electronic geological data.
Periodic bulletins for the industrial and mining sectors, issued by the National Industrial and Mining Information Center under the ministry, enhance transparency by providing investors and decision-makers with accurate, up-to-date data on licenses and sector developments.
