NORWEGIAN Cruise Line (NCL), one of Southampton’s “big three’’ operators, is abandoning the city and moving to the Spanish port of Barcelona.

NCL claims the repositioning of its vessel, Norwegian Jade, is not connected with the present economic downturn but a move that will “simplify the product”.

Last year NCL brought , Norwegian Jade, with her highly distinctive multicoloured livery, to Southampton for the first time and the ship will be returning again this year to undertake a summer season of voyages.

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The company’s arrival in Southampton meant that the three biggest cruise operators, Royal Caribbean International, Carnival UK, with brands such as P&O Cruises, Cunard, and Princess Cruises, and NCL were all based at the docks.

However, in 2010, from April to November, the NCL ship will be operating from Barcelona on a programme of seven-night, fly-cruises in the Mediterranean.

While in Southampton, NCL has tempted a great number of passengers on board Norwegian Jade with short party cruises as well as traditional longer voyages together with sizeable discounted fares.

Norwegian Cruise Lines’ UK general manager, Stephen Park, said: “The company has had great success out of Southampton and if we had more ship capacity we would love to continue doing it, but this makes more sense.

“This change will simplify the product we sell as Jade undertook lots of different itineraries out of Southampton but we found, for instance, the seven night sailing out of Barcelona has been popular with customers.’’ While NCL will leave Southampton next year the city will be welcoming a further three brand new ships, P&O Cruises’ Azura, Celebrity Eclipse and Cunard’s Queen Elizabeth.