Two companies, one shared ship
On Marseille–Ajaccio, two companies operate: La Méridionale and Corsica Linea. Both run the same vessel, the Pascal Paoli, and for one and the same crossing the recorded price gap has reached €237.13. In our readings of 1 July 2026, La Méridionale comes out the cheaper of the two: for a foot passenger in a reclining seat, it starts at €34.02 (€45.88 on average) against a €48.78 minimum and an €82.90 average at Corsica Linea. La Méridionale takes 176 of the cheapest dates for this profile, Corsica Linea 26.
The price tips over between January and July
For a foot passenger in a reclining seat, January is the cheapest month: €35.82 as both minimum and average. In July the average climbs to €83.77, with a floor of €58.82. June (€74.74 on average) and August (€68.20) stay high, then the fare falls back: €42.49 on average in September, €36.63 in October, €35.82 in November. With a car and a cabin, the seasonal gap widens further still: two adults pay €159.01 in January against an average of €433.93 in July; for four (two adults, two children), the July average reaches €510.43 against €206.65 in January.
Tuesday rather than Friday
Across the week, Tuesday is the cheapest day for a foot passenger in a reclining seat (€47.44 on average), Friday the most expensive (€54.92). The lowest individual dates fall in late summer: on 23 August 2026, a Sunday, La Méridionale posts €34.02 for a foot passenger, €101.79 with car and cabin, €128.81 for two adults; 16 August 2026 follows at €34.92. Outside those August dips, the floor settles at €35.82 across many dates from October to December — for instance 20 and 27 October, 5 November, and 7 and 23 December 2026.
Leaving from Marseille, or from next door
From Marseille, the crossing to Ajaccio starts at €34.02 via La Méridionale (€50.64 on average). Two other ports reach a lower floor, both via Corsica Ferries: Toulon at €28.00 (€40.23 on average) and Nice at €33.00 (€49.25). Toulon is the cheapest recorded departure point for Ajaccio, €6.02 below the Marseille floor. Sète, also served by Corsica Ferries, starts higher, at €36.00 (€42.60 on average).
What the codeshare reveals
With the Pascal Paoli shared between La Méridionale and Corsica Linea, the very same ship can be billed up to €237.13 more depending on which company you book with. For the foot passenger in a reclining seat, the average gap between the cheaper and the dearer of the two reaches 33.2%, and up to €66.86 on a single crossing. With a car and a cabin for two adults, the maximum recorded gap climbs to €289.40, and to €324.20 for a family of two adults and two children. La Méridionale's minimum stays below Corsica Linea's on each of the four profiles: €101.79 against €121.06 for one adult with car and cabin, €174.45 against €220.40 for the family of four.
Our readings cover January, then June to December 2026, with a few dates up to 10 January 2027; February to May do not appear in the data.