ITA Airways and Costa Cruises signed a letter of intent (LoI) aiming to define joint commercial initiatives for the promotion of new services and products.
The partnership between ITA (Italy's state-owned flag carrier succeeding Alitalia) and Costa “predicts that ITA be identified by Costa as the “preferred air carrier for cruise travel to medium and long destinations,” guaranteeing fly-cruise services.
The idea is for the passengers to start their cruise vacation from the beginning, making sure they get attention and more options and to ensure an Italian experience with the only company that flies the Italian flag for 70+ years.
The partnership provides for ITA to be identified by Costa as the preferred air carrier for flight+cruise packages on the routes served by the cruise company.
Emiliana Limosani (ITA's , CCO) said they were "proud to have entered into a partnership with a leader in the cruise sector such as Costa Cruises."
"Costa's wide and rich package of holiday offers will ensure decisive support for the marketing of our products and services but, above all, this agreement will allow us to guarantee the country a quality connectivity both with abroad and towards the cruise destinations preferred by tourists."
According to Mario Alovisi (Costa's VP Revenue Management, Itinerary & Transportation), the recovery of tourism was a fundamental objective for the economy of their country to which, as Costa, they were contributing via the resumption of their cruise operations and also thanks to the collaboration with Ita.
"The partnership with the new company will allow us to offer even more options to our guests and to ensure them an Italian experience that, as the only company to fly the Italian flag for over 70 years, we help to spread throughout the world."