In August 1924, brothers Federico, Eugenio, and Enrico Costa bought their first ship, the steamship Ravenna, a small cargo vessel built in Scotland. It was the beginning of one of the most recognized brands in the global shipping market.
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Approximately seventy years ago, the Costa brothers entered the passenger liner trade with the Anna C, which began operating a regular passenger route between Italy and South America. The Andrea C followed a few months later. In 1959, the Franca C made history by becoming the company's first ship operated exclusively for cruises, based in Florida.
In the following decades, Costa became the leading European cruise liner and a global benchmark in the sector. Its acquisition by the Carnival group in 1997 ushered in a second golden age, marked by the continued introduction of its megaships to Europe, followed by a massive push into the Chinese market. While seventy years ago Costa shipowners were sending veteran vessels that had survived World War II to South America, today they are launching ships like the Costa Smeralda, a 100% LNG-powered vessel, to compete in the Mediterranean and other destinations.
Tradición
Costa specialized in purchasing crude olive oil in Mediterranean countries for overseas export. The logical next step in expanding this business in the early decades of the 20th century was its entry into the shipping sector. Thus, in 1924, it acquired the Ravenna, used for supplying raw materials to markets in the eastern Mediterranean, and in 1928, the Langano joined its fleet.
With the Enrico C, Costa popularized cruises from Barcelona in Spain.
In the 1930s, the Costa brothers began naming their ships after family members: Federico (1931), Eugenio and Enrico (1934), Antonietta, Beatrice and Giacomo (1935). At the beginning of World War II, their fleet consisted of eight ships, with a gross tonnage of 27,534.
At the end of the war, only the Langano survived, but Costa resumed its activity as a shipowner by purchasing other second-hand vessels for its coastal routes. However, the post-war economic crisis and the influx of migrants to the New World caught the attention of the Costa family, who decided to enter the transatlantic passenger trade. In 1947, the Maria C embarked its first passengers bound for the Río de la Plata. But perhaps the milestone was the delivery of the Anna C in Genoa in 1948. Like its fleetmates, it was a conversion, but Costa wanted more than just a ship to transport emigrants. He employed Nino Zoncada to design the ship's interior; a swimming pool was installed; all first-class spaces were air-conditioned, as were the second-class lounges; and it carried only 800 passengers. The Andrea C underwent a similar transformation, and both began serving routes to South America.
Costa Armatori invents the seven-day cruise.
Linea C began using its passenger ships as cruise ships during the off-season of its regular service between the Mediterranean and South America.
In what was the first instance of a round-trip cruise in the Western Mediterranean, the Andrea C arrived in Barcelona on August 23, 1952, from Genoa and Cannes, with 480 passengers who enjoyed a week-long cruise: Genoa, Cannes, Barcelona, Palma, Algiers, and back to Genoa.
Costa Cruises began trading on the Milan Stock Exchange in 1989.
In 1953, the Franca C, after extensive refurbishment, opened a new route to Venezuela and the Antilles. However, just six years later, Costa withdrew the ship from its regular passenger service and rebuilt it as a cruise ship. The decline in Italian emigration from Europe meant there was a surplus of ships that needed to be sold. The Franca C was truly the company's first cruise ship and a milestone in Costa's transformation into the first shipping company entirely dedicated to cruising. In addition to a spacious lido deck, it offered 100% en-suite cabins, was fully air-conditioned, and more. The Franca C's refurbishment, designed by Nino Zoncada, was completed in July 1959, when it embarked on its first cruise in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. On August 6, 1959, the Franca C called at Barcelona, and a day later at Palma, on its maiden voyage, repeating those same ports several times that year. However, these were not regular stops, as the duration of the cruises varied greatly.
At the end of that summer season, Costa decided to offer short winter cruises from Florida to the Caribbean, also using the Franca C. It was their first ship to operate from the United States. There, too, Costa was a true pioneer. After this winter season, it made a transatlantic cruise back to Italy. Thus, every year, the Franca C crossed the Atlantic in the fall to Miami and returned to Genoa in the summer.
However, the ship that truly began regular cruises for a full season was the Anna C (which had made its first cruise in 1953), another ship on the Italy-Caribbean route that Costa had to find work for due to the decline in Italian emigration. The Anna C was refurbished in 1959 and in 1960 offered a brief, two-month season in the Mediterranean. In the winter of 1963-64, it accompanied the Franca C from Fort Lauderdale, offering short cruises to the Bahamas. In June 1964, Costa launched the Anna C, offering its first series of cruises with an identical seven-day Mediterranean itinerary: Thursday in Genoa, Bastia/Cannes, Saturday in Barcelona, Sunday in Palma, Monday in Tunis, Tuesday in Palermo, and Wednesday in Naples. This program, with slight variations, would eventually become a classic for Costa and other cruise lines. That year, the Anna C offered a total of sixteen departures, from June 25 to October 8, 1964.
Passengers could embark at any of the three Italian ports: Genoa, Naples, and Palermo—a novel interporting system in 1964—and its nearly 400 passengers could take optional breaks from the cruise to enjoy stays in the various ports. By 1966, its Mediterranean season had expanded to six months.
In 1947 Costa embarked its first passengers on the Maria C.
During these years, the Anna C began to be sold in the Spanish market, both to individual passengers and as full ship charters. In 1969, for example, Zanussi dealers enjoyed a full charter of the ship. The Anna C remained on this route for six years, until 1969, when it was replaced by the Franca C.
In 1970, the seven-night cruise season was shared between the Andrea C and the Enrico C. That year, Costa's seven-night itinerary included departures from Barcelona from May 10 to October 4, with stops in Palma, Algiers, Tunis, Palermo, Naples, Genoa/Cannes, and Barcelona.
Fleet Expansion
In addition to technical improvements, such as air conditioning, Costa began to take care of the environments of the lounges on board during those years, creating comfortable and elegant environments, to which had to be added the impeccable service, hospitality, and the recipes of the best Italian gastronomy.
In 1997, Costa Cruises was acquired by Carnival Corp and Airtours.
This focus on decoration was highlighted by Giò Ponti, editor of Domus magazine, who dedicated his work to naval affairs, emphasizing the architectural and decorative aspects of the Costa fleet. This focus remains relevant today. In addition to the previously mentioned additions, the fleet expanded during the 1950s and 60s with ships such as the Bianca C (the first with balcony cabins in the early 1960s), the Enrico C, the Andrea C, the Flavia, the Fulvia, and the Carla C. The first ship built specifically for Costa arrived in 1958 from the Genoa shipyard of Ansaldo: the Federico C, another design by Nino Zoncada, was still subdivided into three classes, each with its own swimming pool.
The Enrico C, a classic for thirty years.
But the development of Costa cruises in the Mediterranean is inextricably linked to the Enrico C. As early as 1970, it was calling weekly in Barcelona and Palma, sharing the season with the Andrea C. From then until 1989, for almost twenty years, it was a regular visitor to Barcelona, always offering its usual seven-day cruise. These were very difficult years for the cruise industry: just as mass cruising was taking off in Europe, the 1973 oil crisis hit, leading Costa to cancel these voyages in 1973 and 1974. Between June 1 and October 12, 1975, the Enrico C returned to calling every Sunday in Barcelona, maintaining its historic itinerary with stops in Palma, Tunis, Palermo, Naples, and Genoa/Cannes. But by the late seventies, Costa was already planning a considerable increase in its 7-night cruise offering from Barcelona, with the addition of the Angelina Lauro.
1964 was the first season with regular Costa cruises stopping in Barcelona with the Anna C.
From 1981 to 1989, Costa offered a seven-night cruise season from Barcelona through the Western Mediterranean, running from June to October. However, it didn't increase the number of cruises because it always featured the same ship: the ever-present Enrico C, and only offered seasons with around twenty sailings. If the 1970s were tough for Barcelona due to the oil crisis, the 1980s were no less challenging. Only Costa and Grimaldi offered cruises in the Western Mediterranean.
Costa was also a pioneer, along with other Greek shipowners, in offering cruises in the Eastern Mediterranean. On February 4, 1971, the Franca C departed from Venice, beginning a series of cruises to destinations such as Katakolon, Istanbul, Kusadasi, Rhodes, Piraeus, Corfu, and Dubrovnik.
The Ship of the Future:
The success of Costa Cruises reached such heights that in 1964 the company commissioned the construction of the Eugenio C, a ship that became the symbol of the company for decades. Like many others built in the 1960s (Sagafjord, Queen Elizabeth 2), it was designed by Nino Zoncada and Matteo Longoni for both passenger and cruise services. It was dubbed "the ship of the future" for its facilities and design. It was notable for having all the lounges on a single deck, and for being one of the first ships whose decor was conceived around a theme: precious stones. It was delivered in 1966, and its first major cruise began on January 9, 1967, a 34-day voyage around Africa.
Current fleet: 14 ships. New ships: 4 more ships by 2021, 2 of them for the Chinese market.
In 1967, the shipping company changed its name to Costa Armatori. One of its first decisions was to strengthen its presence in the North American market with the Carla C and the Flavia. The pioneering Franca C, launched in 1968, inaugurated the "fly + cruise" travel formula, destined to completely change the way cruises were conceived. By then, Costa was already a global cruise operator, a leader in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and South America. It also began offering longer cruises, such as the Eugenio C's round-the-world voyage in 1977. Another example is the famous month-long August cruise on the Eugenio C, like the one it offered in 1980 from Barcelona to the Caribbean, with thirteen ports of call.
And just as in previous decades, the Genoese shipowner didn't miss any opportunity in the 1970s to enrich his fleet, buying or chartering new vessels: this is how the legendary Daphne and Danae arrived, luxury ships that spearheaded Costa's expansion into the North American market, offering Caribbean cruises in winter and summer seasons in Alaska, Europe, and elsewhere. The company also converted its ships for this new trade: only ten years after its delivery, in 1968, the Federico C was transformed into a cruise ship and assigned to the Caribbean.
The last regular sailing of the Eugenio C to South America took place in 1982. From then on, the company's activity focused on cruises, a situation formally recognized in 1986 with the change of its corporate name to Costa Crociere.
Costa Begins the Transition.
1990 was a landmark year. Costa decided to strengthen its offerings in the Mediterranean and, for the first time, broke with the practice of using older ships in that destination. It opted to use its most modern vessel: the Costa Marina. After years of stagnation, the 1990s reversed that trend. The Costa Marina, with a capacity of 800 passengers, only offered weekly Monday sailings from Barcelona for three years, before being replaced in 1993 by an even larger and more modern ship, the Costa Classica, with a capacity of 1,200 passengers. That same year marked another milestone: Costa also opened its own offices in Spain and dissolved its partnership with Ybarra. The first result was a much more aggressive marketing and sales strategy.
Costa was a pioneering shipowner in offering cruises from Venice.
The following year, its sister ship, the Costa Romantica, joined the route, remaining on the service for six seasons until 1999. Between the first year of the Costa Classica (1993) and the last of the Costa Romantica (1999), Barcelona saw a surge in passengers, from 152,082 to 541,596, an increase of over 350%. The main culprit was clearly Costa Cruises.
In the 1990s, the cruise industry entered a spiral of new construction and market consolidation that clashed with Costa's traditional model. The decline was evident, going from fourteen ships (six of them chartered) in the mid-1970s to just five in 1985. These were the years of "Italian-style cruising," designed to capitalize on its position as the only Italian cruise line in the United States. In 1985, Costa became one of the first cruise lines to incorporate its own name into its ships' names, with the Costa Riviera, a practice that many others have followed.
Costa Cruises is the undisputed leader in the Chinese cruise market.
In 1989, Costa Crociere began trading on the Milan Stock Exchange to finance an ambitious fleet expansion program in the early 1990s: the Costa Allegra, the Costa Classica, the Costa Romantica, and the magnificent Costa Victoria. In July 1990, Costa and Sovcomflot formed Prestige Cruises to manage four ships in the premium market, but the results were not as expected. In 1993, the ships of Paquet Cruises arrived, following the acquisition of the cruise business of the French groups Chargeurs and Accor. The company's older ships were sold to other shipowners or scrapped, including the Eugenio Costa. Another strategic decision was to withdraw from traditional destinations such as the Caribbean (there were no Costa ships in that destination in the summer of 1993), or Alaska, which was marketed for the last time in 1994. In addition to Cuba in 1995 with the Costa Playa, new destinations were also opened such as Scandinavia in the summer of 1993, with the Daphne and the Enrico Costa based in Amsterdam.
Carnival's Acquisition:
Following a failed takeover attempt by Royal Caribbean in 1995, Costa Crociere was acquired in 1997 by Carnival Corp. and the British tour operator Airtours, each holding a 50% stake in the Italian cruise line. This acquisition significantly boosted the Genoa-based company's investment capacity, but its new owners decided to maintain the Italian company's identity. An ambitious fleet plan was devised, projecting thirteen new ships between 2000 and 2012, representing a total investment of €5.5 billion. Several factors motivated this expansion: Carnival aimed to enter the European market and establish it as its second largest source market; it leveraged Costa's extensive goodwill, one of Europe's most recognized cruise brands, and associated it with distinctive and unique ships featuring spectacular designs.
The Eugenio C was famous for decades for its award-winning August cruises, which lasted a month.
In July 2000, the Costa Atlantica arrived, the new flagship that was inaugurated in Venice, opening a new chapter in the company's history. At the time, it was the largest passenger ship in the history of the Italian Navy, with cabins mostly featuring balconies, and a series of ambiances and atmospheres in its lounges, the work of Joe Farcus, which surprised company purists but attracted new segments of passengers. The arrival of the Costa Atlantica also marked the return of the tricolor flag, after a hiatus of about ten years, to the masts of the Costa fleet. Its sister ship, the Costa Mediterranea, joined the fleet in 2003. To accelerate Costa's expansion, two ships from other Carnival Corp. companies arrived: the Costa Tropicale (formerly Tropicale) in 2001, and the Costa Europa (formerly Westerdam) in 2002.
2000. Costa Offers Two Ships from Barcelona.
In 2000, Costa decided to invest heavily in the Western Mediterranean due to political instability in other destinations, such as the Adriatic. It was also a Holy Year. Costa decided to offer two ships weekly to this destination: the Costa Victoria, with a capacity of 2,000 passengers, and the Costa Riviera. They also introduced the port of Civitavecchia for the first time and used Savona as the Riviera's home port in Italy. The move was successful, and the service was repeated the following year. The Costa Riviera was replaced in 2002 by the Costa Tropicale, while the Costa Victoria remained until 2003, but that year its companion was the Costa Mediterranea. That year, Barcelona surpassed one million cruise passengers for the first time.
The Franca C offered Costa's first cruise season from Florida in 1959-60.
In September 2000, Carnival Corp. bought Airtours' 50% stake in Costa, becoming its sole shareholder. This gave a significant boost to the company's expansion programs. Thus, in October, just one month later, an agreement was announced with Fincantieri for the construction in Genoa of two 102,600 GT ships with a capacity for 3,470 passengers, which were delivered as the Costa Fortuna and Costa Magica in late 2003 and late 2004, respectively.
With these new resources, 2004 was another remarkable year for Costa. For the first time, it deployed the new Costa Fortuna, its first post-Panamax vessel, in the Western Mediterranean from Barcelona. Furthermore, Costa featured three ships in this destination for the first time: in addition to the Magica, the Costa Classica also offered weekly sailings, while the Costa Tropicale arrived in Barcelona every two weeks. It also became the first megaship to remain in the Western Mediterranean year-round, offering longer cruises to destinations such as the Canary Islands and the Holy Land.
The following year, 2005, there were two megaships, with the addition of the Costa Magica replacing the Costa Classica. Since then, Costa has consistently featured two post-Panamax vessels of over 100,000 tons in the seven-night cruise market departing from Barcelona. The addition of these megaships had a significant effect on Barcelona's figures: the number of cruise passengers went from one million in 2003 to 1.2 million in 2005 and 1.4 million in 2006, again thanks mostly to Costa.
cruise
lines to recognize the importance of cruise embarkation and disembarkation as an integral part of the cruise experience, which led to the need to build its own terminals. After abandoning Genoa as its home port in Italy, the Palacrociere, the first cruise terminal co-financed and managed by Costa, opened in Savona in November 2003. On April 24, 2007, the new Palacruceros, a dedicated terminal in the port of Barcelona, also fully financed and managed by Costa, was inaugurated.
In 2004, Carnival Corp's German brand, Aida, was integrated into Costa Cruises. This marked the beginning of unstoppable growth that has made Aida the undisputed leader in the German market.
Costa Cruises resumed its Round the World cruises in 2011.
Following the first two Panamax ships, Costa Cruises ordered three more of a design fully adapted to the European market, with a gross tonnage of 114,500 and a capacity of 3,780 passengers. These were the Costa Concordia in 2006; the Costa Serena in 2007; and the Costa Pacifica in 2009. Subsequently, in October 2007, Costa announced an order with Fincantieri for two more ships of this 114,500 gross tonnage design, which were delivered to the company in the spring of 2011 and 2012 as the Costa Favolosa and Costa Fascinosa, respectively. Finally, in June 2006, Costa ordered two new 92,700-ton ships from Fincantieri, which were built in Marghera: the Costa Luminosa and the Costa Deliziosa, which entered service in 2009 and 2010, respectively.
At the same time, the oldest ships were being retired from the fleet. In October 2005, the Costa Tropicale was transferred to another Carnival Corp. brand, P&O Australia. And the Costa Europa was sold to Thomson Cruises in 2010. Then, in 2007, Ibero Cruceros, a joint venture between Costa Cruises and Orizonia Corporation, began operating in the Spanish market until its closure in 2014.
New Destinations
In 2006, Costa announced its expansion into the Persian Gulf, confirming its international focus. Following a cruise from Savona, the Costa Classica embarked on its first cruise from Dubai on December 23, 2006. It was a seven-night round-trip itinerary. The AidaCara also debuted that season. The following season, Costa deployed two ships, the Costa Romantica and the Costa Europa, and has served that destination every winter since. In 2011, it was the first operator to market a post-Panamax vessel to that destination, with the Costa Favolosa's season. And 2019 marked thirteen consecutive seasons serving that destination.
In February 2007, Costa announced a new and exclusive itinerary: Indian Ocean cruises from Mauritius with the Costa Marina. The following winter it was replaced by the Costa Europa, and in the 2009-2010 season by the Costa Romantica, which together with its sister ship have covered that destination to this day, with the sole exception of the winter of 2013-2014. In the winter of 2016-2017, Costa Cruises opened another destination in that area with the Mumbai-Mahe round-trip cruises of the Costa Neoclassica.
Conquering China
But Costa Cruises' biggest bet has undoubtedly been on Asia, and in particular, China. In January 2006, it was announced that the Costa Allegra would offer cruises between Hong Kong and Mumbai starting in May of that year; in February, it was the turn of its sister ship, the Costa Marina, to offer cruises from Singapore in the winter of 2006/2007; and in March, it was announced that the Costa Allegra would be based in Shanghai from July after a refurbishment. Offices were also opened in Shanghai and Hong Kong at that time. Finally, on July 3, 2006, the Costa Allegra inaugurated the Shanghai International Cruise Terminal.
In December 2007, Costa announced the addition of a second ship to China, the Costa Classica, which would begin service in March 2009. In June 2010, with the addition of the Costa Romantica, Costa's then-president, Gianni Onorato, indicated that the market's growth was "a reward for its pioneering investments." From 2006 to 2010, Costa had increased its capacity fivefold.
Costa Smeralda, which will begin operating in October 2019, will be the second largest prototype in the world upon delivery.
Due to the economic crisis, Costa Cruises decided to halve its fleet in Asia, sending the Costa Romantica back to Europe in 2011. But in June of that year, it was announced that in May 2012, Costa would again expand its capacity by 40% with the arrival of the Costa Victoria. During the presentation of that ship, Costa revealed that it had transported more than 350,000 passengers in China since 2006, and that another Panamax, the Costa Atlantica, would join the Victoria in 2013.
On the occasion of the Costa Atlantica's first port of call in Singapore, the creation of Carnival Asia was announced, the Carnival Corp. subsidiary led by Pier Luigi Foschi to boost the company's development in that continent. And in 2014, Costa launched the first round-the-world cruise for the Chinese market aboard the Costa Atlantica, which set sail on March 22 from Shanghai.
The Costa Serena joined the fleet in the spring of 2015, followed a year later by the Costa Fortuna, bringing the Costa fleet based in China to five ships and making it the undisputed leader in that market. In 2019, the Costa Venezia, the first Costa ship specifically designed for that market, will arrive. A second ship, yet to be named, will follow in 2021.
December 29, 2011, marked another milestone: Costa Cruises' first round-the-world cruise in 17 years. Following in the footsteps of the Eugenio C and the Danae, the Costa Deliziosa set sail from Savona to visit 37 ports on five continents over 100 days. Since then, and up to 2019, Costa Cruises has offered eight circumnavigations, always on the Costa Deliziosa or its sister ship, the Costa Luminosa.
Between 2000 and 2014, Costa Cruises added twelve new ships to its fleet, which is one of the most modern today
Another Costa initiative, launched in 2014, was the "neoCollection" itineraries aboard the Costa neoRiviera and Costa neoRomantica. The idea was to dedicate the smaller ships in the Costa fleet to this initiative, offering new destinations off the beaten track and inaccessible to the larger vessels. Longer port calls were offered, focusing on destination immersion with optional excursions for small groups and local cuisine. However, Costa Cruises' focus on megaships and China ultimately led to the discontinuation of this option.
In 2006, Costa launched the Costa Concordia for the first time on seven-night cruises departing from Barcelona. During that initial season, the cruise line called at Barcelona on Mondays and then continued to Palma, Tunis, Valletta, Palermo, Civitavecchia, and Savona—an itinerary very similar to the one first offered by the Anna C in 1964. The Concordia only left the Mediterranean during the winter of 2009/2010. For six seasons, it was the flagship vessel for the Genoa-based cruise line in Barcelona, always accompanied during the summer by one of its sister ships: the Costa Fortuna in 2006 and 2007; the Costa Magica in 2008; the Costa Pacifica in 2009 and 2010; and the Costa Serena in 2011. In 2011, the political instability in North Africa, coupled with the price war in the sector, led Costa to dedicate two of its best ships to offering seven-night cruises from Barcelona, a safe, attractive, and very affordable route for European markets.
In the winter of 2010-2011, Costa decided to offer seven-night winter cruises for the first time, using the Costa Magica with a very attractive winter itinerary that included stops in Barcelona, Marseille, Savona, Civitavecchia, Palermo, Tunis, and Palma. The following season, the ship chosen for the winter season was the Costa Concordia. It was precisely on one of these cruises that it suffered its fatal accident near the island of Giglio on January 13, 2012. In subsequent winters, its sister ships (Costa Pacifica, Costa Serena, etc.) replaced it until the 2014-2015 season, when the new Costa Diadema took over.
In 2012, Costa kept the Costa Serena, while the Costa Neoromantica, and later the Costa Magica, covered the Mediterranean itineraries. In July of that year, there was a change in the presidency of Costa Cruises: Pier Luigi Foschi retired and was replaced by Michael Thamm, who was previously the president of AIDA Cruises.
Costa is a pioneer in the use of liquefied gas for the propulsion of its ships.
In 2013, the Costa Favolosa was the only post-Panamax ship in the Italian shipping company's fleet to call weekly in Barcelona every Tuesday, with an itinerary that included stops in Palma, Valletta, Catania, Naples, and Savona. In July and August, the smaller Costa Voyager supplemented Costa's seven-night Barcelona cruise every Monday. Costa's second post-Panamax ship in the western Mediterranean, the Costa Serena, did not call in Barcelona that year.
In 2014, Costa resumed calling twice a week in Barcelona, on Tuesdays with the Costa Favolosa and on Fridays with the Costa Serena. The Favolosa changed its summer itinerary, adding a stop in Ibiza, while the Serena switched from La Spezia to Palma. This seasonal adjustment of port calls is another of Costa's recent innovations.
Costa's latest ship, the 132,500-ton Costa Diadema, with a capacity of 3,700 passengers, was delivered in November 2014 and has sailed exclusively in the Western Mediterranean, offering seven-night cruises with stops in Savona, Marseille, Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Naples, and La Spezia. It arrives in Barcelona every Monday, and Costa's offerings are complemented in the summer by ships such as the Costa Fascinosa. In 2017, Costa opened a second homeport in Catalonia with the Costa neoRiviera's calls from Tarragona, combining a cruise with visits to the theme parks in that province.
Neil Palomba also joined Costa Cruises as Vice President in 2014 and was promoted to President a year later. Under his leadership, Costa's new ships have been commissioned, and promotions such as the "Happiness Squared" campaign, featuring Shakira, have been launched.
Costa Smeralda, the first cruise ship targeting multiple European markets.
On September 13, 2017, steel cutting began on Costa Cruises' next flagship, the Costa Smeralda, at the Meyer Turku shipyard in Finland. The new Costa Cruises ship will be the company's first powered by Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
The Costa Smeralda, scheduled to begin operations in October 2019, will be the second largest prototype in the world upon delivery, second only to Royal Caribbean's Oasis series, with nearly 190,000 gross tons, more than 2,600 cabins, and a total capacity of approximately 6,600 passengers.
A second ship, a sister ship to the Costa Smeralda, will be delivered by the same shipyard in 2021. The contract also includes two additional ships for Costa's German subsidiary, Aida, as well as several options. Furthermore, Costa Cruises is phasing out older vessels from its fleet, such as the Costa neoClassica, which has been sold and will be retired next March.
Costa Smeralda. It will begin operating in October 2019, and upon delivery it will be the second largest prototype in the world, second only to Royal Caribbean's Oasis series, with almost 190,000 registered tons, more than 2,600 cabins for a total of about 6,600 passengers.
The two new Costa Cruises ships will be powered by LNG, the world's cleanest fuel, both in port and at sea, significantly reducing exhaust emissions, particularly sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter.
Together with the existing fourteen ships, these additions will allow Costa Cruises to consolidate its dominant position in China and compete for supremacy in Europe and South America, its traditional strongholds.
