Launch celebration delayed to aid stranded air passengers - TravelMole


Launch celebration delayed to aid stranded air passengers

Saturday, 20 Apr, 2010 0

LONDON – New cruise ship Celebrity Eclipse has cancelled the first leg of her launch celebrations – scheduled to begin this week – in order to assist UK holidaymakers whose return from their Easter break has been halted due to the impact of ash clouds from the eruption of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano in Iceland.

Cruise ships, coaches and ferries will be used also by Thomson and First Choice parent TUI Travel to bring stranded holidaymakers home.

TUI aims to transport home 5,000 out of 40,000 passengers stuck abroad due to the volcanic ash cloud which has closed UK airspace since Thursday.

Celebrity Cruises is working with UK tour operators to collect stranded holidaymakers affected by the airport closures and subsequent flight cancellations that have affected travellers in Northern Europe.

Celebrity Eclipse will arrive in Southampton as scheduled at 9:00 a.m.UK time today, and will depart this evening to Bilbao, Spain, where she is scheduled to arrive in the early hours of Thursday, April 22.

Stranded holidaymakers will embark the ship which will return to Southampton, arriving late on Friday evening.

This sailing will replace the activities planned during the two-night, round-trip launch celebration cruise from Southampton.

On its new operation, Eclipse will collect delayed holidaymakers – some by up to seven days – who were on package holidays with major UK tour operators. Over 2,000 travellers are currently expected to join Celebrity Eclipse in Bilbao.

Said Richard Fain, chairman of Celebrity Cruises and chairman and CEO of its parent company, Royal Caribbean Cruises, “The events affecting air travel are completely unprecedented, and it is in times like these that the global travel industry needs to pull together.

“Collecting stranded British and Irish holidaymakers is a fitting first mission for new ship Celebrity Eclipse – what better way for a ship dedicated to the UK to mark her arrival?

“We hope that guests initially invited to join the launch celebrations on April 22 will understand the change of plan, and we look forward to welcoming as many of them as possible to the naming ceremony on April 24 instead.”



 

profileimage

Ian Jarrett



Most Read

Mark Jaronski of Explore Georgia on FIFA World Cup 2026

Connecting Small Businesses to Global Tourism Markets: Nate Huff of Tourism Exchange

North Carolina’s Resilience: Wit Tuttell on Recovery and Tourism

Kittipong Prapattong’s Plan for Thailand’s Tourism Growth: Taxes, Visas, and Campaigns

James Jin: Didatravel’s Journey from China to Global Reach and the Impact of AI on Travel

Darien Schaefer on Pensacola’s Evolution: From Small Town to Global Destination

Florida Tourism’s Next Frontier: Dana Young on Expanding Beyond the Classics

Patrick Harrison on Tampa Bay Tourism’s Resilience and Marketing Strategy

Bubba O’Keefe on Clarksdale’s Vibrant Music Scene

Commemorating Elvis and Embracing Tupelo’s Culture with Jennie Bradford Curlee

Craig Ray and the Expansion of the Blues Trail

Presenting Mississippi’s Cultural Trails with Katie Coats
TRAINING & COMPETITION

Our emails to you has bounced travelmole.com Or You can change your email from your profile Setting Section

Your region selection will be saved in your cookie for future visits. Please enable your cookie for TravelMole.com so this dialog box will not come up again.

Price Based Country test mode enabled for testing United States (US). You should do tests on private browsing mode. Browse in private with Firefox, Chrome and Safari