MSC Cruises charters flights to repatriate 1,000 passengers

MSC Cruises has launched a “dedicated flight programme” to repatriate stranded passengers after the US, Israel and Iran conflict forced airspace closures.

The cruise line had one ship, MSC Euribia, currently docked in the port of Dubai with passengers after a round-trip itinerary was interrupted, and has cancelled the four remaining seven-night sailings in the region for the season.

In a statement, a spokesperson said: “MSC Cruises has been working on the safest and quickest way to repatriate our guests and has taken decisive action to accelerate this by launching a dedicated flight operation that currently includes five charter flights with the first flight planned to depart today, Thursday March 5.

“These flights would see close to 1,000 guests leave the region by Saturday.”

MSC Euribia has capacity for 6,327 passengers across 2,419 cabins, and 1,711 crew members.

A spokesperson was unable to comment on how many passengers would be left to repatriate and what their nationalities were.