Carnival to Build Three More Cruise Ships

Jason · June 17, 2006

Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise ship company, announced on June 12th that it had ordered two more new cruise ships for its European brands and taken an option on a third.

One of the new ships, a 92,700-ton vessel, will be built by Italy's Finacntiera shipyard for Costa Cruises and will enter service in the spring of 2009. Carnival also took an option for a second idential cruise ship for Costa, which would debut in the fall of 2010.

Counting these two ships, Costa currently has five new cruise ships on order from Fincantieri representing 13,520 total lower berths.

The other new ship ordered by Carnival, a 68,600-ton ship, will be built by Germany's Meyer Werft shipyard for AIDA Cruises, and will enter service in the spring of 2010.

Three other vessels, also being built at Meyer Werft for AIDA Cruises, are scheduled to debut in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

AIDA Cruises is marketed exclusively to German-speaking passengers and offera an informal "club resort" concept aimed at younger, more active passengers.

The announcement continues Carnival's aggressive expansion strategy in the European market, and also reflects the fact that the current strength of the Euro makes it easier to justify ordering ships for the European market.

"We have invested a great deal of time and money expanding and diversifying the European cruise market which possesses incredible potential for growth," said Carnival Chairman and CEO Micky Arison.

"Costa is already the clear leader in the southern European market and AIDA holds the same distinction in Germany," Arison said. "These new state-of-the-art ships for Costa and AIDA will further bolster their positions in the respective markets and ensure that we have adequate capacity available to meet growing demand for European cruises."

Source: Cruise Ship Report