AIDA scraps September cruises, plans November start in Canary Islands

Norway off-limits

AIDA said the conditions are currently not suitable in Germany's neighboring countries, especially in the north with Norway and Denmark or the Baltic states. For many destinations outside Europe, Germany has travel warnings or the respective countries are blocking cruises until 2021.

'Even though it is currently not possible for cruise ships to call at Norway, which is so important for our voyages to the north, we are confident that the first AIDA ships from Germany will be able to travel to Northern Europe again at the beginning of 2021,' AIDA President Felix Eichhorn said.

All departures through October are canceled

Short voyages with AIDAblu from Kiel, AIDAperla's Hamburg departures on Sept. 12, 19 and 26 and all voyages up to and including Oct. 31 are canceled.

AIDAmar will become the first in the fleet to begin sailing on Nov. 1 with seven-day Canary Islands cruises. AIDAperla will follow on Nov. 7, taking over the program planned for AIDAnova.

AIDAmar will sail round-trip from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, while AIDAperla will offer departures from Las Palmas and Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Western Mediterranean

In the Western Mediterranean, AIDAstella will begin sailing Dec. 12 from Palma, Mallorca, on seven-day cruises.

All other voyages planned for the fall and winter 2020/21 in the Western Mediterranean, the Azores, Cape Verde Islands and Northern Europe are canceled.

Dubai cruises are on

AIDAprima is scheduled to begin sailing from Dubai Dec. 11 and from Abu Dhabi Dec. 15.

Other long-distance voyages canceled

Caribbean cruises by AIDAdiva, AIDAluna and AIDAperla are canceled this winter, along with cruises to Southern Africa with AIDAmira, Southeast Asia with AIDAbella and AIDAvita, the Indian Ocean with AIDAblu and the Orient with AIDAprima, up to and including the Dec. 8 voyage.