We have taken a scheduled Monarch flight to Alicante ever since GB Airways (which operated the Gatwick/Alicante route for British Airways) was taken over by easyjet in 2008. The big advantage of Monarch scheduled flights was the extra legroom seats which offered an almost Business Class sized seat space. Also, because they operated far fewer flights than easyjet, bag check in was very quick indeed, and we always found their ground staff, air hostesses and stewards to be most helpful and courteous.

I can't speak for Monarch charter flights, as we never used them.

So it will either be British Stairways or Norwegian for us next year!!!