The German cruise line AIDA Cruises has announced the plan for their crew members currently on board the ships. Due to the longer time out of operation, the company will start to repatriate as many as possible non-essential crew back home. The crew who will be sent home earlier than one month before the contract expires will receive full payment until disembarkation, plus two additional monthly basic salaries.

For the crew with expired contracts and unable to leave the ship because of the travel restrictions, the company will keep them as a working crew members

Starting from April 10, AIDA will continue to pay these crew members a basic salary excluding overtime. The crew which will remain on board will work a reduced schedule of 8 hours per day and receive 1 full day-off per week.

In a letter sent to the crew, AIDA Cruises said the company is very grateful that the crew on board is still in very good health condition and no positive case of COVID-19 has been reported so far. Aida management send their gratitude to the crew for following up on the guidelines and regulations for protection.

Regarding the latest decision, the company said It is important to find the best and most fair approach for all crew considering their personal contract situation. The crew compensation guideline is aligned, or even above the agreements and recommendations from ITF/CBA and the overall cruise industry situation.

Aida Cruises plans to disembark the crew members first, who:

• - Can get home considering the availability of flights and adequate travel conditions.
• - Are not required to the safe operation of the ship while we have no guests on board.
• - Have reached their vacation dates or will soon.

Following this announcement a crew member on Aida Perla has sent us the following update:

*Captain discuss about the repatriation and contracts of the crew onboard.

*The company is planning to repatriate some of the crew members via chartered flights.(still ongoing discussion)

*Other EU countries with few crew members on board they cannot find any chartered flights because the number of crew is very low.

*In Asia still an option that they will send home the crew members via chartered flights (Filipino and Indonesian) but for the Indian crew, it's difficult for them because their country is in full lockdown and nobody is allowed to enter from outside India.