The Gulf Is Off the Map for AIDA and Costa — and It Won't Be Back Until 2028
AIDA Cruises and Costa Cruises cancel their entire 2026-27 winter season in the Middle East, redirecting ships to the Canary Islands and Europe amid ongoing regional instability.
Two of Europe’s biggest cruise brands have drawn a hard line in the sand on the Middle East.
AIDA Cruises and Costa Cruises — both owned by Carnival Corporation — have officially cancelled their entire winter 2026-27 cruise programmes in the Middle East region. Every sailing originally planned for the season is gone. According to Cruise Industry News, AIDA confirmed this week that the decision affects all voyages aboard AIDAprima scheduled between October 19, 2026 and May 20, 2027. Costa Cruises confirmed a matching withdrawal. Neither brand expects to return to the region until winter 2027-28 at the earliest — and even that is contingent on conditions the lines are clearly not prepared to bank on today.
This isn’t an emergency cancellation. It’s a deliberate, season-wide decision made far enough in advance to give passengers time to rebook. And that strategic distance is precisely what makes it significant.
What’s Actually Being Cancelled
For AIDA, the scope goes beyond simply removing a few Gulf sailings from the calendar. AIDAprima had been scheduled to spend the winter operating from Dubai and Abu Dhabi, running a series of popular weeklong Gulf cruises. Those routes are now entirely off the books. Making matters more logistically complex, the repositioning cruises that would have taken AIDAprima around the African coast in autumn and spring — to get the ship to and from the Gulf — have also been scrapped.
Costa Cruises is in the same position. The line had planned a full winter programme in the region, and every one of those sailings has been withdrawn. In their place, Costa has redesigned its winter deployment toward European and Atlantic destinations. In what the line is billing as a first, Costa Smeralda will spend the winter season running seven-day cruises between the Canary Islands and Madeira.
Why Now, and Why So Far Out
Both companies are citing ongoing regional uncertainty as the reason for the decision. That’s understated language, but the context is plain. Since a joint US-Israeli military strike on Iran in late February triggered a Strait of Hormuz closure, the entire Gulf cruise sector has been in freefall. TUI Cruises is waiting for a corridor to open so it can move two ships still docked in Abu Dhabi and Doha. MSC has already repatriated more than 1,500 stranded guests from Dubai. AROYA Cruises cancelled the rest of its 2026 Persian Gulf season outright.
The difference with AIDA and Costa is timing. These aren’t emergency responses to a ship already in port. These are calculated decisions made months before the 2026-27 winter season would even begin — decisions that require long-lead planning changes, fleet redeployment, and advance notice to travel partners and passengers. In other words, these brands looked at the situation, looked at the timeline for any plausible resolution, and decided it wasn’t worth waiting around to see.
What Happens to Affected Passengers
Guests who had booked AIDA sailings in the affected period are being offered the chance to rebook an alternative AIDA cruise by May 10, 2026. Those who do will receive €200 in onboard credit per cabin for double-occupancy bookings, or €100 for single-occupancy. It’s a meaningful gesture designed to make the transition smoother — and to retain customers who might otherwise defect to a competitor.
For Costa guests, the line has redirected its winter fleet to Europe and the Atlantic, giving affected passengers a range of alternative itineraries to consider. The pivot to the Canary Islands and Madeira for Costa Smeralda is notable — it’s the kind of decision that signals Costa isn’t just killing time. It’s actively building a new winter product in a more stable market.
The Bigger Picture
It’s worth pausing on what this moment represents for the cruise industry’s relationship with the Middle East. The Gulf had become a legitimate winter cruising market over the past several years, particularly among European travelers. Lines like TUI, MSC, AIDA, and Celestyal had all built seasonal programmes around it. The region offered genuine draws — warm winter temperatures, culturally rich port cities like Dubai and Abu Dhabi, and itineraries that felt genuinely different from the usual Caribbean or Mediterranean offering.
That market is now effectively suspended. Multiple brands have cancelled current-season operations. Two major lines have now announced they won’t return for an entire future season either. MSC, Celestyal, and AROYA are navigating their own disruptions. Taken together, this is a coordinated, if unplanned, retreat from an entire cruising region.
AIDA has confirmed it intends to resume Gulf operations in winter 2027-28, with AIDAperla expected to operate itineraries out of Dubai and Abu Dhabi from December 2027 through early April 2028. But that plan is 18 months away, and it’s contingent on a geopolitical situation that neither Carnival Corporation nor anyone else can guarantee will be resolved by then.
For passengers who had their hearts set on a Gulf cruise, the practical answer right now is simple: the Middle East is not available. The Canary Islands, however, are.