Emirates Airline and MSC Cruises expand fly-cruise partnership at Arabian Travel Market

Emirates and MSC Cruises have signed an agreement at Arabian Travel Market expanding their fly-cruise partnership across distribution, passenger handling, crew travel, and loyalty.

The agreement builds on more than a decade of cooperation between the Dubai-based airline and cruise line and includes plans to expand fly-cruise distribution across the Emirates network in line with MSC Cruises’ seasonal homeport deployments.

The two companies will develop through-fares and open-jaw itineraries, allowing passengers to combine flights and cruises that begin and end in different destinations.

They will also review gateway markets for further opportunities to integrate air and cruise travel.

MSC Grand Voyages and repositioning cruises are another focus of the agreement, with the partners planning tailored products that use Emirates’ international network to provide one-way air connections for passengers joining or leaving these longer voyages.

Emirates and MSC Cruises will also explore whether elements of the passenger handling model currently used at Dubai’s Port Rashid can be introduced at other cruise ports.

Potential areas of cooperation include terminal check-in, through-baggage services, and coordinated transfers between airports and cruise terminals.

The companies will also develop joint protocols covering disruption management and passenger repatriation.

The Port Rashid model provides a basis for closer integration between cruise and airline operations, particularly for international passengers using Dubai as the starting or finishing point for a cruise.

Expanding aspects of the system to other destinations could allow passengers to move between flights and ships with fewer separate handling requirements.

Crew travel will also form part of the expanded partnership.

Emirates is set to serve as a preferred carrier for MSC Cruises’ seafarer rotations, with the agreement covering dedicated crew fares, additional baggage allowances, and services tailored to crew members travelling to and from ships.

Customer loyalty initiatives are also included in the MoU, although further details of this aspect of the partnership have not yet been announced.

The agreement was one of several partnerships signed by Emirates during Arabian Travel Market covering tourism, travel technology, business organisations, and financial services.

For MSC Cruises, the latest MoU expands an existing relationship with Emirates beyond conventional fly-cruise packages to include distribution, operational coordination, crew mobility, and passenger handling.

The companies have worked together for more than a decade, including around MSC Cruises’ seasonal operations from Dubai.