The German cruise line Aida Cruises plans to use cruise ships to repatriate crew back home. According to a message send by a crew member the repatriation process will start by transferring the crew on one ship which will then set sail to Europe from where charter flights will be organized for the crew.

At a meeting Aida Perla Captain Boris Becker informed the crew that about 300 crew from the cruise ship Aida Luna will transfer tomorrow onboard Aida Perla and the ship will start 10 days voyage, crossing the Atlantic.

“As per captain last night at the townhall meeting crew members from Aida Luna will transfer here in Aida Perla and tomorrow afternoon we will leave Barbados going to canary islands for 10days. Goodbye Barbados. Hello Europe and Germany.” says the crew member

According to the plan, Aida Perla will arrive in Tenerife, Canary Islands to pick up the crew from Aida Nova. The next scheduled stop is the port of Funchal, the capital city of Portugal's Madeira archipelago, where Aida Perla will pick up the crew from Aida Stella and Aida Mira and heading back to Germany. Once arriving at the final destination the company will try to send the crew back home with charter flights.

Another crew member has also confirmed the repatriation plan saying "Perla is coming here and we will embark and sail to Germany and from there we will fly home. We all believe it will start to be like this fleet-wide. They tried sending people home these days but it's super expensive. So now they are stacking us up on ships and going closer to a port which can actually send us home via airports.”

There is also a plan to transfer the crew from Aida Diva to Aida Mar in a few days’ time, and sailing back to the port of Hamburg, Germany from where flights will be arranged for the repatriation of the crew.