Ryanair steps in to fill Monarch routes at East Midlands.

Ryanair will step in to take over some of the routes being vacated by Monarch Airlines when it quits flying from East Midlands Airport next year.

Monarch is to stop flying from the Castle Donington airport at the end of April.

The airline, which has been operating from East Midlands since 2012, has decided to pull out in order to concentrate on its other UK bases and its plan to transform itself into a low-cost carrier.

Using two aircraft based at the airport, Monarch currently flies to Alicante, Malaga, Faro, Tenerife, Palma, Arrecife, Ibiza and Malta.


Ryanair has now announced that next summer it will start flying a twice-weekly service to Malta, tickets for which will go on sale next week.

And as a result of Monarch's departure, the Dublin-based carrier will provide extra flights to Alicante, Malaga, Faro and Tenerife.

Previously, both Monarch and Ryanair have doubled up on these four routes.

But next year they will be solely operated by Ryanair.

Its 2015 summer flying schedule also features more frequent flights to Palma de Mallorca and Lanzarote.

It means that next year, Ryanair will operate 36 routes from East Midlands.

Ryanair's David O'Brien said: "Ryanair is pleased to extend our East Midlands schedule to 36 routes, with a new Malta route and extra flights to Alicante, Malaga, Faro, Palma de Mallorca, Tenerife and Lanzarote, all of which will be on sale from next week."