Costa Cruises has announced a strategic agreement with Vueling internationally. At the same event, they also announced the renewal of their agreement with Iberia, which is now in its third year.
The collaboration with Vueling will allow passengers from Spain to connect, via Barcelona-El Prat Airport, to Costa in Europe. Specifically, Vueling will offer these travelers all its routes via Barcelona to Copenhagen, Bari, Amsterdam, Hamburg , and Stockholm. In addition, it will also operate the Paris-Copenhagen.
Furthermore, the alliance will also allow for the transfer of European passengers beginning their cruises in Barcelona, a key embarkation port for Costa cruises. Vueling will thus offer flights from Rome , Naples , Palermo, Amsterdam, Munich, and Brussels . During the current 2016-2017 winter season, the airline already offers connections from the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands, with a transfer service from El Prat Airport to the port for embarkation.
According to David García Blancas, Commercial Director of Vueling: “The new and important agreement signed with Costa aims to offer travel agencies and Costa Cruises a wide range of opportunities that will result in even better customer service, simpler and more comfortable holidays.”
Under this agreement, which will last for three years – from 2017 to 2019 – Vueling will make 20,000 seats available to Costa each year, for a total of 60,000 seats over the entire period. To facilitate a better travel experience, both airlines offer customers a special check-in area at Barcelona-El Prat Airport.
Costa Cruises and Iberia Agreement
Iberia and Costa Cruises have also decided to extend their current agreement (2016-2018) until 2019. This extension will generate 45,000 more seats on charter flights that year, increasing the total number of seats offered to 175,000.
For his part, Víctor Moneo, Sales Director of Iberia Spain, commented: “We are delighted to renew our strategic partnership with Costa Cruises, a company we have been collaborating with since 2014 with excellent results. This partnership allows customers to reach cruise departure ports from all 125 destinations in Iberia's network worldwide. Furthermore, thanks to our collaboration with Iberia Airport Services, customers can check their luggage at the airport and collect it directly from their cabin. Our goal is to offer the best possible travel experience.”
This alliance will improve connectivity between Spain, Europe, and the various Costa cruise departure points on the continent. As part of this agreement, Costa passengers will be able to enjoy connections from Madrid this summer to Trieste, Rostock, Stockholm, Bari, Venice, Copenhagen, and Amsterdam .
Furthermore, this agreement also includes various routes to and from South America, the Caribbean, and the USA. During the 2017 summer season, Costa Cruises passengers arriving from Argentina, Chile, Brazil, or Uruguay will be able to connect via Madrid to Costa 's European cruise ports of embarkation . Similarly, during the winter season, passengers from Europe will be able to travel comfortably with Iberia from their point of origin to destinations such as Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro , and major South American airports to board the ships that the airline operates on that continent.
The agreements signed with Vueling and Iberia stem from Costa Cruises ' desire to offer the best cruise experience, establishing the best network of connections in the sector, to make it easier for its guests to reach the embarkation points of their itineraries comfortably and easily.
Raffaele D'Ambrosio, Managing Director of Costa Cruises for Spain and Portugal, commented: “We are very proud to announce our partnerships with two leading international companies in the tourism sector. We have signed a three-year agreement with Vueling, and we have renewed our successful collaboration with Iberia. As a result of both agreements, we will be offering our passengers more than 235,000 airline seats until 2019, a key milestone in our commitment to enhancing the travel experience and making cruises more accessible to our passengers. This new agreement is one of the main drivers of Costa Cruises' short-term growth strategy in Spain and Portugal.”
