When the Monarch Travel Group collapsed in the early hours of this morning and while the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) put its rescue plan into effect another plan was being put into motion, to separate the profitable engineering arm based at Birmingham Airport.
Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited (MAEL), which has been in business for 50 years, officially became a standalone company as the Airline and Tour operator failed with the loss of around 3000 jobs. It is one of the biggest Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) companies in the UK.
MAEL employs over 700 people at its six UK locations in the UK and four European sites. The MRO has hangars at Birmingham and London Luton airports, and line maintenance facilities at London Gatwick, London Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds Bradford, Edinburgh, Nice, Malaga, Warsaw and Kiev.
MAEL acknowledged that Monarch Airlines was a significant customer. It is now focusing on servicing its existing 3rd party clients. It has recently won a new significant contract from Virgin Atlantic Airlines. to carry out C1 checks for Virgin’s Boeing 787-9 as a Boeing Gold Care partner.
Chris Dare, Managing Director at MAEL said: “MAEL has always been a standalone business within the Monarch Group, holding its own cash, employees and property. Despite what has happened at Monarch Airlines and Monarch Tour Group, MAEL continues to trade as normal with renewed focus on servicing our existing clients and winning new contracts. It’s business as usual – offering world-class engineering services to customers in Europe and around the world, in conjunction with our partner Boeing Global Services, following the recent partnership agreement.
“We are extremely happy to have secured Virgin as a new customer for our Birmingham facility. This yet again proves our ability to secure new business with the very best customers in an extremely competitive market.
“Our expanding customer base at Birmingham is a testament to our efficient, reliable and high-quality base maintenance team. As a new customer, we look forward to welcoming 17 of Virgin’s Boeing 787 aircraft into our Birmingham hangar over the next four years.”
MAEL’s capabilities:
- Base Maintenance: with facilities located at London Luton Airport and Birmingham Airport MAEL is capable of accommodating up to twelve lines of heavy maintenance across Boeing, Airbus, Embraer and Bombardier aircraft types.
- Line Maintenance: with permanent year round stations at London Gatwick, London Luton, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds Bradford, Edinburgh, Nice, Malaga, Warsaw and Kiev, MAEL is capable of providing line maintenance support including all levels of maintenance on Airbus, Boeing, Embraer and Bombardier aircraft types.
- Fleet Technical Support: as a Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation (CAMO), MAEL provides CAMO services to an established customer base worldwide.
- Component Services: the Spares Trading team can supply parts from an extensive range of consumable and rotable aircraft spares in stock, while the Component Maintenance Centre can repair the unit.
- Design Services: MAEL’s design service is an EASA Part 21 Subpart J and GCAA CAR 21 Subpart J Design Organisation.
- AOG Support and Assistance: as part of the suite of services which can be provided by MAEL in the event of an AOG situation, the company is able to provide staff on a detachment basis to assist with the rescue of grounded aircraft or supply materials and components on a sale, loan or exchange basis.
