MSC Cruises’ boss says the line is considering bringing one of its larger ships to operate a series of UK sailings this summer and could also utilise more than one ship from its fleet.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, chief executive Gianni Onorato said the current focus remained on MSC Magnifica (pictured), which was already slated to sail from Southampton, but plans could change.
“Today’s plan is the presence of Magnifica in the UK and that still stands. But we are having a sort of reshuffling of all our itineraries, so there might be, in this reshuffling, the opportunity to have a bigger ship,” he said.
“There might be a bigger ship or more than one ship and we’re going to communicate this very, very soon.”
Onorato also hinted that the reshuffling of its programmes and ships meant there could be further “nice surprises” for UK guests in terms of future itineraries.
“We are following very closely the evolution of the pandemic and consequently the evolution the decisions of the UK government and also other governments [around the world],” he said. “If eventually there are other destinations where we can sail to, which will be reopened then, we may have also a nice surprise for our UK guests, by adding more destinations to our itineraries.”
Onorato predicted the line’s plans would be “very, very exciting for UK guests”, and added: “We have reason to believe that there will be other destinations which will be open soon – I can refer to the Greek islands, for example.
“We believe that already in May, we can have a certain number of ships operating in the eastern Mediterranean, calling at Greece and Croatia. And we do expect many UK guests to be taking this opportunity.”
Onorato said: “Similarly, we’re looking forward to the reopening of ports like Barcelona, Marseille, where again it will allow us to go almost back to normal in terms of itineraries and destinations in the Mediterranean.
“We’re very confident that between May and June this may happen. We will know more on April 12. And then, the date when there will be a clear opening [the full easing of restrictions] will be June 21 and not earlier than that.”
Onorato said UK guests were in pole position for when destinations re-open.
“All the various governments I’m in talks with – the first thing they ask me is: ‘Do you have English guests with you? Do you have UK guests? because that’s what we want to open with’,” he said.
“They all desire you, they all want you, so that is really fantastic.”
Onorato said he was also hopeful that there will be an opportunity to restart sailing in the Caribbean in the third quarter of the year as destinations in the Americas started to reopen.
He added: “I saw in the press that President Biden said that, by May, he would like to have American tourists coming back to Europe. So obviously, when you have tourists coming from America, you must also accept the tourists are coming from Europe. And obviously, again, guests from the UK would be the most welcome.”