Monarch is a major charter airline operating from the UK. It operates a varying fleet of aircraft types to destinations in Europe, Asia, America, Africa and the Caribbean. It is also a significant employer of pilots with over 400 which makes Monarch a appealing career airline.

Monarch is a medium sized airline in terms of its aircraft numbers and destinations served. It operates a mix of single and wide body types and uses both Boeing and Airbus aircraft. The airline does have a relatively ageing fleet when compared to other UK airlines but is ordering the 787 to take over from some of the older planes.

Monarch does operate mixed fleet flying especially amongst its Airbus types A320, A321 and A300. Although Monarch only recruits pilots for single type flying, mixed fleet flying comes from seniority within the airline.

There are no direct-entry captain positions available at Monarch. They only recruit first officers. Command positions can be obtained through internal promotion, this policy is becoming fairly common in the industry although it can change suddenly depending on requirements.

Time to command can be slow at Monarch taking upto 10 years. The reason for the slow upgrade time has resulted from a reduction of aircraft in the airline's fleet recently. This has even resulted in some captains having to fly in the First Officer role for some flights. The section can of course improve in the future as the fleet size changes.

Monarch tend to only recruit experienced pilots with 2000 hours tending to be the minimum. Type rated and non-type rated pilots are eligible although the minimum hour requirement may be relaxed for type rated pilots.

Non-type rated recruits are trained in house as Monarch is an approved Type Rating Training Organisation. Type rating training costs are met by the airline although pilots who leave soon after this training then the costs will need to be repaid.

Monarch has numerous UK bases although the main ones are at Birmingham, Manchester, London Luton and London Gatwick. Manchester and Gatwick are the best pilot bases as far as destinations served.

The airline does have a very good route network which does span multiple continents. Once a pilot advances onto a wide body type then visits to the Florida, The Caribbean, Egypt and the Maldives are some of the destinations you can be visiting with Monarch.

A large part of Monarch's business is the charter business so like other charter operators expect the summer months to be significantly busier than the winter ones.