Monarch Airlines has failed, stranding 111,000 travelers abroad in what the U.K.’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is calling "the biggest ever UK airline failure."
The CAA announced Monday that all future Monarch Airlines bookings had been canceled following a decision by the company's board to cease trading.
Authorities are scrambling in an effort to bring back the thousands of passengers left stranded abroad.
In a statement, the CAA announced it was working with local government to secure a fleet of over 30 aircrafts that would be flown to over 30 airports to bring the passengers home at no extra cost.
Andrew Haines, chief executive of the CAA, said in the statement that the airline’s decision to cease trading would be very distressing to customers, adding that, with 300,000 future bookings canceled, this was the biggest U.K. airline to fold.
"We are putting together, at very short notice and for a period of two weeks, what is effectively one of the UK's largest airlines to manage this task," he said.
"The scale and challenge of this operation means that some disruption is inevitable."
This move would not just affect customers. More than 2,000 Monarch workers now face losing their jobs.
One crew member, Natasha Slessor, said she received an email Monday stating she had been made redundant.
"How can you wake up and not have a job?" she told BBC News. "I still can't believe it really."
This comes shortly after budget airline Ryanair was forced to reduce its fleet and cancel thousands of flights as it struggled to overcome a pilot scheduling crisis.
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