Monarch Airlines (London-Luton) as planned retired its last three Boeing 757-200s (G-DAJB, G-MONJ and G-MONK) this past week with the end of the summer season schedule.

The last flight was operated with G-MONK on a return charter flight from London (Gatwick) to
Krakow on November 12 as flights MON 9064 and MON 9065 returning late in the evening. G-MONK was then ferried from Gatwick Airport to Birmingham (BHX) for the end of lease checks.

All three of the Boeing 757s are currently at BHX awaiting their fate.

 

The airline is now all-Airbus ironically until those aircraft are replaced with new Boeing 737 MAX 8s.

Monarch has published this nice salute the venerable type on its Monarch blog:

Monarch has bid a sad but fond farewell to its Boeing 757s this month after years of tremendous service within the fleet. The Boeing 757 had a very interesting life within the fleet, due to it’s phenomenal flexibility and wide range and payload capabilities. It has served with Monarch all over the world and has probably seen more corners of the globe than our Airbus A300 or A330 wide body aircraft.

As word got out in the press and via social media that Monarch’s Boeing 757s were retiring, we received lots of interesting questions about the aircraft from you. In response, we’d like to share some of the beloved aircraft’s wonderful history and key stats with you. We’ve turned to passionate Boeing 757 enthusiast Toby Hiller, Monarch’s Senior Economic Planning Analyst, for his expertise.

Can you tell us a bit more about the history of the Boeing 757 fleet?

Between November 1993 and November 2014, Monarch’s Boeing 757 fleet operated planned flights to 439 airports in 128 countries and territories worldwide, including glamorous destinations such as New York, Rio de Janeiro, Cape Town, Bangkok, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney! The furthest airport from Luton that the aircraft served was Auckland, New Zealand.

How many passenger seats/capacity does a Boeing 757 have?

With extra legroom seats the aircraft has 229 seats; without the extra legroom seats it has 235 seats. Interestingly, if the capacity is set up in a VIP “Captain’s Choice” configuration (which we operated on special charter flights – see below) then there is 92 business class seats and 12 economy seats.

Is there a fixed amount of staff needed for a Boeing 757?

The amount of crew needed for a Boeing 757 flight is subject to the length of the flight. A standard Monarch ZB short haul flight has 2 pilots (a captain and first officer) and 6 cabin crew serving our customers but this could change to 3 pilots and 8 cabin crew on long-range flights. It is interesting to know that VIP flights are subject to charterer requirements and on VIP flights an engineer would also travel.

How many toilets does a Monarch Boeing 757 have?

There are 2 toilets located at the front of the aircraft, 2 more at “door 3” which is further down the plane, so there are 4 in total.

How many galleys are there?

There are 2. There is a galley at the front of the aircraft and 1 at the rear. On VIP flights, a chef’s station could also be added to prepare fresh meals for customers.

What is the maximum take-off weight of the Boeing 757 aircraft?

Maximum take-off weight (MTOW): 113,398 kg

Top Copyright Photo: Antony J. Best/AirlinersGallery.com (all others by Monarch). One of the most colorful liveries worn by a Monarch 757 is the pictured Boeing 757-2T7 G-MONJ (msn 24104) that wore the the second version of the special “Hedkandi” color scheme.

Monarch Airlines aircraft slide show:

Video: A full flight on board G-DAJB from London (Gatwick) to Faro: