UK leisure carrier, Monarch, has revealed two new winter 2015/2016 routes from London Gatwick Airport this month after placing its first selection of flights for the next winter schedule online. The initial 60,000 seats cover seven routes from the UK, including the two new links between London and the Swiss city of Geneva and Austrian city of Innsbruck.

The UK carrier is currently reinventing itself as a scheduled European low-cost operator following a change in ownership to better meet passenger demand. Over recent years holiday habits have been changing and travellers want a greater choice of flight times and destinations – particularly for short breaks.

Through the review of its network strategy, the airline is focussing on offering customers greater flight frequency and more sociable departure times to short-haul European destinations from its main UK bases.

The airline still has many other routes to include in its winter 2015/2016 but has opened reservations on these seven routes to meet demand from customers that like time to plan their holidays well in advanced. Further flights and additional dates will be added over the coming months.

The initial routes comprise flights from Birmingham to Grenoble and Salzburg; from London Gatwick to Grenoble; from Manchester to Grenoble and Innsbruck; and the new links from London Gatwick to Geneva and Innsbruck.

“We know our customers like time to plan their holidays well in advance to guarantee the best deals, we are therefore pleased to be able to release a substantial part of our ski programme for 2015/16 for advanced sale to give our customers a head start when planning next year’s break,” said Adrian Tighe, chief commercial officer, Monarch.

“During the winter months Geneva airport becomes one of the major hubs for skiers travelling to the French Alps. It is a welcome addition to Monarch’s ski programme,” he added.

The new flights will place Monarch in direct competition with British Airways, easyJet, Swiss European Air Lines, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways on the route to Geneva from London Gatwick and British Airways, easyJet, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways in the market between London Gatwick and Innsbruck.

In the chart, below, we look at winter capacity in these two markets over the past ten years.