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Rescued holidaymakers return home on board Eclipse
Friday, 26 Apr, 2010
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Holidaymakers stranded by the volcanic ash crisis are back in the UK having been picked up by new cruise ship Celebrity Eclipse from Bilbao on Friday.
More than 2,000 travellers returned on board the £500 million new vessel which ailed to its new summer base in Southampton .
Celebrity Cruises worked with Thomson, First Choice, Thomas Cook, Travel Counsellors and the Co-operative Travel Trading Group to repatriate as many of their holidaymakers as possible.
The line also made 50 cabins available to Britons identified as having an urgent need to return to the UK.
The travellers were organised with assistance from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s crisis team in Madrid.
Thomas Cook group chief executive Manny Fontenla-Novoa said the rescue mission was a great example of how the UK industry has worked in partnership to get people home.
He said: “We are enormously grateful to Celebrity Cruises for helping us in our efforts to get Thomas Cook customers back home safely.
"Our teams in the UK and abroad have been working around the clock to repatriate our customers as quickly as possible and this is another great example of how we have worked with our travel partners to achieve this.
"I’m sure the customers who travelled home on her will always remember the arrival of Celebrity Eclipse into service and this unique voyage."
See video coverage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTfeRt6Dbyg
by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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