The second quarter  of this year was the strongest ever for MSC Cruises in the UK and full year volumes were likely to exceed those f 2019, the lines’ UK and Ireland Managing Director Antonio Paradiso reportedly said.

“The second quarter was the strongest booking period ever for us in the UK, maybe we need to build more ships...The domestic market is booming for us… We’ve seen last minute demand which is very strong and we’ve seen some amazing itineraries for MSC Grandiosa next year,” he was quoted by Travel Weekly as saying.

After the first six months of the year, MSC Cruises had reached 85% of the sales made in 2019 and bookings for the full year 2022 were likely to exceed the levels three years ago, before the pandemic.

The UK was likely to be one of the first source markets to reach the pre-pandemic levels of bookings for the Geneva based company, he said.

Fly cruises improve slowly

This summer and autumn, MSC Cruises operates a series of 23 cruises on the 181,504 gross ton MSC Grandiosa from Southampton for a second season in a row, while before the pandemic it used MSC Magnifica, which has a gross tonnage of 91,528.

However, Paradiso was also cited to say that fly cruises were “also slowly improving,” which would indicate that the ongoing problems with air travel reflect negatively in bookings of cruises that require flights.

Paradiso's comments would also indicate that the introduction of the larger and more modern MSC Grandiosa has fuelled the line’s success on the British market, where it is the second largest vessel currently cruising out of a UK port after P&O Cruises’ 184,089 gross ton Iona.