Award winning low fares airline Monarch is strengthening its network to the Canary Islands with the launch of new year-round scheduled services to Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura from Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester airports.

From 19th October 2009, one flight a week will operate to Gran Canaria from Birmingham and up to two flights a week will operate from London Gatwick and Manchester. In addition, from 21st October 2009, one flight a week will operate to Fuerteventura from Birmingham, London Gatwick and London Luton and up to two flights a week from Manchester.

Commenting on the launch of the new services, managing director of Monarch flights and holidays, Liz Savage said, “We are delighted to be expanding our network to the Canary Islands with the launch of scheduled flights to Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura in addition to our existing routes to Tenerife and Lanzarote. We are seeing huge demand for our mid-haul destinations – in June we carried 59% more customers to Lanzarote and 16% more customers to Tenerife compared to June 2008 and the addition of Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura means even more people can take advantage of our low fares and award-winning onboard service to these popular sunshine islands this winter.

“The onboard service offered on Monarch’s scheduled flights, which includes extra legroom seating, a great range of tasty hot and cold food and selected inflight entertainment is over and above the levels provided by most low fare airlines and is perfectly suited for longer flight sectors such as the Canary Islands.”

The introduction of services to Gran Canaria and Fuerteventura brings the total number of flights operated by Monarch to the Canary Islands to up to 64 per week, with almost 500,000 seats available this winter season – a 32% increase on last winter.

Monarch operates scheduled flights to Spain, Gibraltar, Portugal and Cyprus from Birmingham, London Gatwick, London Luton and Manchester airports.Passengers travelling on scheduled flights can also avoid the queues at the airport and take advantage of online check-in which is available between seven days and 4.5 hours prior to departure.

In addition to flights, Monarch also now offers a huge range of great value holidays, accommodation options, car hire and travel insurance.