- MSC Cruises and Air France strengthen their cooperation on French market, with the signature of an ambitious contract, scheduling 18 rotations between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and the airport of La Romana in Dominican Republic.
- This agreement marks the creation of a direct Air France link between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and the airport of La Romana in Dominican Republic, dedicated to cruise passengers.
PARIS, 2014-11-5 — /Travel PR News/ — On November 3rd, 2014, Gianni Onorato, CEO of MSC Cruises and Patrick Alexandre, General Sales Director of Air France-KLM, concluded a contract scheduling 18 rotations of a Boeing 747-400 with a total of 432 seats, of which 36 in Business Class and 396 in Economy Class.
A total of 7 776 seats will be reserved to the passengers of the MSC Musica from December 7, 2014 to April 5, 2015. A dedicated check-in will be reserved to MSC Cruises customers at the Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport and Air France has planned pre-flights for customers coming from other regions of France and Europe.
This new agreement consolidates the commercial partnership formed in 2012 between MSC Cruises and Air France. Collaborations were established those past two years for cruises to several European countries, French West Indies and South America. In 2013, Air France carried more than 12 000 MSC Cruises passengers, departing from France and this number has already increased in 2014 – with more than 28,000 passengers – due to this new link.
Patrick Alexandre, General Sales Director of Air-France-KLM declared: “I am very happy and proud to sign today this partnership. It reflects a long-term cooperation between Air France and MSC Cruises on the Italian market and more recently on the French market. This contract is a very strong signal, which echoes Air France sales offensive, in order to offer the products best tailored to clients’ needs”.
Gianni Onorato, CEO of MSC Cruises said: “We are honored to conclude today a new partnership with the air transport leader in France. This agreement allows us to reinforce and consolidate our development in the Caribbean and generally on the French market. The alliance of flights and cruises is a key component of our strategy, which objective is to offer an increasingly rich panel of destinations to our passengers, through a global offer”.
MSC Cruises is the third most important cruise company in the world, with 16 300 collaborators in 45 countries. In 2014, the twelve ships of the company hosted 1.6 millions of passengers.
Air France is a major actor in the aerial transport industry and employs 100 000 people over the world. The group operates the largest long-haul network departing from Europe. In 2012, Air France-KLM carried 77.4 millions of passengers and 1.4 million tons of freight.
ABOUT MSC CRUISES:
MSC Cruises is the market leading cruise company in the Mediterranean, South Africa and Brazil and operates across the globe. MSC Cruises sails year-round in the Mediterranean and in the Caribbean and offers a wide range of seasonal itineraries in northern Europe, the Atlantic Ocean, the French Antilles, South America, Southern Africa, as well as in Dubai, the Emirates and Oman. Its modern fleet comprises twelve ships: Fantasia-class MSC Preziosa, MSC Divina, MSC Splendida and MSC Fantasia; Musica-class MSC Magnifica, MSC Poesia, MSC Orchestra, and MSC Musica; Lirica-class MSC Sinfonia, MSC Armonia, MSC Opera and MSC Lirica. MSC Cruises is the only company in the world to receive the “7 Golden Pearls” award from the Bureau Veritas in recognition of its high level of quality management and environmental responsibility. MSC has also achieved ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 certification for the quality and food safety of all aspects of its catering, both on shore and on board. MSC Cruises believes that global leadership brings increased responsibility towards the physical and human environments in which it operates. As such, MSC entered in a long-term partnership with UNICEF in 2009 to support educational programmes for children in Brazil. The partnership was renewed early 2014, this time to support UNICEF’s efforts to tackle famine and malnutrition in developing countries and in emergency situations. Since the beginning of the partnership, MSC collected three million euros in MSC guests donations.
ABOUT AIR FRANCE:
AIR FRANCE, with its regional subsidiary HOP!, operates 1,500 daily flights in France, Europe and worldwide. Its fleet comprises 350 aircraft in operation.
Since 2004, AIR FRANCE and KLM have formed a major player in the air transport industry. The two airlines operate the leading long-haul network on departure from Europe.
In 2013, AIR FRANCE and KLM carried 77.3 million passengers.
The two airlines currently offer their customers access to a network covering 231 destinations in close to 100 countries from their hubs at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam-Schiphol.
Their Flying Blue frequent flyer programme is leader in Europe and has over 24.5 million members.
AIR FRANCE and KLM and their partners Delta and Alitalia operate the biggest trans-Atlantic joint-venture with over 250 daily flights.
AIR FRANCE and KLM are members of the SkyTeam alliance which has 20 member airlines, offering customers access to a global network of 16,323 daily flights to 1,052 destinations in 177 countries.
Internet : corporate.airfrance.com
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