Above: Air France planes

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Air France and MSC Cruises have signed a contract to partner on 18 flight rotations between Paris and La Romana in the Dominican Republic.

The agreement creates a direct link between Paris-Charles de Gaulle and La Romana’s airport that is dedicated to cruise passengers.

The contract includes 18 rotations on a Boeing 747-400 with a total of 432 seats.

The agreement will mean a total of 7,776 seats reserved for passengers of the MSC Music between Dec. 7 and April 5, 2015, with a dedicated check-in desk for MSC Cruises customers at CDG.

Last year, Air France carried 12,000 MSC Cruises passengers from France to Caribbean destinations, with 28,000 so far this year.

“It reflects a long-term cooperation between Air France and MSC Cruises on the Italian market and more recently on the French market,” said Patrick Alexandre, general sales director of Air France-KLM. “This contract is a very strong signal, which echoes Air France sales offensive, in order to offer the products best tailored to clients’ needs.”

In a statement, MSC Cruises CEO Gianni Onorato said the deal would “reinforce and consolidate our development in the Caribbean and generally on the French market.”

“The alliance of flights and cruises is a key component of our strategy, which objective is to offer an increasingly rich panel of destinations to our passengers, through a global offer,” he said.