Costa Cruises Plans 28 Istanbul Sailings for Summer 2027

Costa Cruises plans to operate 28 seven-night sailings from Istanbul aboard Costa Pacifica during summer 2027, beginning April 18. The programme will use Istanbul as the ship’s homeport and is expected to carry 7,400 passengers from Türkiye.

The cruise line intends to reserve 100 cabins on each departure for the Turkish market, equivalent to 2,800 cabins across the programme.

Routes combine Turkish and Greek ports

The initial itinerary is expected to call at Izmir, Mykonos, Santorini, Athens and Volos before returning to Istanbul. From late May, Crete and Rhodes are due to replace Izmir and Volos on subsequent departures. Costa also lists Eastern Mediterranean cruises from Istanbul on its booking website.

Mirco Vassallo, Costa Cruises’ international markets director, told Turizm Güncel that European customers were requesting itineraries featuring Turkish ports. Routes combining Istanbul and Izmir were proving particularly attractive among the line’s European guests, he said.

The 2009-built Costa Pacifica is listed for about 3,000 passengers, rising to a maximum capacity of 3,780, with approximately 1,100 crew. Istanbul’s main cruise facility at Galataport can accommodate three ships simultaneously and handle about 15,000 passengers a day.

Türkiye builds its cruise volumes

Türkiye handled 1,375 cruise calls and 2,138,136 passenger movements in 2025, according to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. Calls increased 15.1% from the previous year, while passenger movements rose 13.2%. The totals include arrivals, departures and transit passengers, not unique visitors.

Kuşadası led the country’s ports with 617 calls and 995,843 passenger movements. Istanbul ranked second, recording 265 calls and 625,517 movements.

Turkish ports handled a further 656 calls and 1,070,481 passenger movements during the first seven months of 2026. That total comprised 192,461 homeport movements and 878,020 transit movements, according to Euronews Türkçe.

Cruise Lines International Association data put worldwide passenger volume at 37.2 million in 2025, including almost nine million passengers from Europe.

Costa targets domestic bookings

Costa placed Burak Çalışkan in charge of its Turkish sales operations in June 2026 and is introducing additional Turkish-language services aboard its ships. Beyond the Istanbul departures, the company is targeting 10,000 Turkish passengers across all of its programmes in 2027.

See current Costa Pacifica fares and itineraries on Cruise Lookup.