After signing an agreement with Costa Cruises, Ryanair has begun to sell the operator’s cruises on its website.

Fifty of the Irish budget airline’s 820 routes link to ports where Costa operates cruises in Northern Europe and the Mediterranean. Included are departures from cities such as Barcelona, Civitavecchia, Marseille, Palermo and Venice.

Spokesperson Angelo Capurro said that Costa Cruises believes the three-year deal signed with Ryanair will help attract younger customers to their cruises.

Capurro commented: “This agreement enables us to further extend our potential customer base by reaching a type of traveller that regularly uses the web channel, namely professionals aged between 25 and 45. This strategy is very much in line with our large-scale fleet expansion program, with five new ships due to enter service, three of which to be delivered over the next twelve months.”

The Italian cruise line carried approximately 1.2 million passengers in 2008, and has targeted 1.5 million passengers in 2009. Costa recently invested 22 million euros in the servicing and upgrading of its fleet.

Costa and Ryanair are jointly offering £100 on-board credits for passengers to use on Costa cruises, on bookings made before 16 March on Ryanair’s website.

Thanks to www.telegraph.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

www.ryanair.com