16 February 2009

Costa signs deal with Ryanair

Costa Cruises has signed a commercial partnership with Ryanair.

The Italian company will become the only cruise line to feature on the Ryanair website.

The three-year deal will see more than 5O routes flown by the airline connecting to Costa departure points.

The agreement is designed to expand the reach of cruise-only deals, particularly to the Mediterranean.

Costa's cruises are available to book from Ryanair's website in the UK and will be introduced to the carrier's other sites in seven other European countries including Ireland.

Costa UK managing director Marco Rosa made it clear that the airline would not be offered preferential rates that would undercut existing agency partners.

"We want to reassure agents that we won't be trashing prices through the Ryanair website," he said.

"This is a new product. We don't want to move the typical cruise passenger who would book through a travel agent.

"This is one extra channel on top of the existing ones."

Rosa made it clear that the line was looking for supplementary business from current Ryanair passengers who would be new to cruising.

He believes the first immediate result of the tie-up would be enhanced recognition of the Costa brand in the UK.

"There are a number of passengers we are missing because we are not so strong online," he said.

"Our growth until 2O12 is huge and everyone is growing capacity so the whole point is finding new passengers."

Rosa added that the line hoped to attract younger, web savvy passengers through the Ryanair agreement.

Costa is offering €1OO on board credit for each cabin booked via the Ryanair website until March 16.

The line, which carried 1.2 million passengers last year, has a target to carry 1.5 million by 2O1O - the equivalent to the total number of people from the UK taking cruise holidays.

Costa is introducing five new ships by 2O12, three of which will enter service over the next 12 months.

Ryanair flights connect with Costa departure ports including Venice, Savona, Civitavecchia, Palermo, Barcelona, Marseilles and Kiel.

The line's Europe and new markets sales director Angelo Capurro was unable to specify the number of additrional bookings Costa would achieve through the Ryanair deal.

But he said: "The agreement enables us to further extend our potential customer base by reaching a type of traveller that regularly uses the web, namely professionals aged between 25 and 45.

"This strategy is very much in line with our large scale fleet expansion programme with five new ships due to enter service, three of which to be delivered over the next 12 months."

The airline's commercial revenue director Sinead Finn said: "Ryanair and Costa Cruises will increase the accessibility and affordability of cruise holidays and bring greater choice to those looking to beat the recession but who still want to get away for a relaxing holiday."

by Phil Davies

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Your Comments (7)

COSTA CRAZY

WHY WOULD ANYONE IN THEIR RIGHT BUSINESS MIND WANT TO BE ASSOCIATED WITH RYANAIR? CUSTOMER SERVICE LEVEL MINUS ZERO. 15 KGS OF LUGGAGE FOR A CRUISE IS A JOKE. COSTA YOU MUST BE DESPERATE.

By SUE FOXALL, Thursday, February 19, 2009
Costa with Ryanair?

Poor Costa - they are struggling, but connecting with a third rate nasty airline isn't going to help. I'm a meeting planner and will definitely cross Costa off my list of possibilities for incentive meetings.

By Nancie Ligon, Wednesday, February 18, 2009
The ship will leave without them

I couldn't agree more with Steve Wade; Ryanair's "customer service" is non existent.But that said they continue to attract customers prepared to be used and abused for the sake of a cheap ticket. I am sure that the Ryanair on time record is no worse than any other airline of it's size, and I am equally sure that most airlines arriving late at a cruise gateway will care not one jot about the fact their customers have missed the boat; the contract is to take one from A to B - and in no specific time frame. The location of Ryanair's gateways relative to Costa's cruise departure points really enforce a pre-cruise hotel on most clients, which is no bad thing if a customer wants to be sure they arrive whilst the boat is still in port.Unless, of course, Mr O'Leary is moving into BCN. No? of course not, the landing fees are too expensive, silly me!! Have to start the cruise with a massive taxi bill from Girona then; might as well fly on a better airline to BCN AND get to take some clothes with me!

By Brian Hawe, Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Great quality association

Why would anybody want to be assocaited with Ryanair..what does it tell first time cruisers and repeats about the quality of Costa !!!!!

By Jeremy Scott, Monday, February 16, 2009
Flight Delay/Cancelations?

Will be interesting to see what will hapen when Ryanair cancel or delay a flight which means the passenger will not be able to connect to their cruise, I think Ryanairs atitude to "customer service" is well documented, not too much of an issue if you end up getting to your hotel a couple of hours late, but its no use getting to the port a couple of hours late is it?

By Steve Wade, Monday, February 16, 2009
and in my next breath

Breath 1 - "Costa UK managing director Marco Rosa made it clear that the airline would not be offered preferential rates that would undercut existing agency partners." Breath 2 - "Costa is offering â¬1OO on board credit for each cabin booked via the Ryanair website until March 16." I must have overlooked the e-mail from Costa offering me this on board credit

By Stan Mathewson, Monday, February 16, 2009
How Can This Work???

Ryanair offer a luggage allowance of 15kg checked in and 10kg carry on and charge £12 per Kg over everyone knows even at 20Kg you can justa bout manage to get enough clothes packed this will be interesting to see as how long will it be before passengers realise that it is difficult to pack light for a cruise or is the passengers costa are wanting to attract going take the tone of a fantastic and wonderful cruise line down a comment would be interesting...

By Martin Owens, Monday, February 16, 2009