Carnival Corp held a keel laying ceremony for the first of its seven cruise ships that will be fully-powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG) during Seatrade Europe in Hamburg earlier this month.
These new ships will be the first in the cruise industry to use LNG to generate 100% of their power both in port and at sea – an innovation that will reduce exhaust emissions to help protect the environment and support Carnival Corp’s aggressive sustainability goals, the company said.
The seven ships, with delivery dates between 2018 and 2022, will be built by German and Finnish shipbuilders Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku.
Arnold Donald, Carnival Corp president and CEO, together with Bernard Meyer, CEO of Meyer Yards, Michael Thamm, CEO of Costa Group and Carnival Asia, and representatives of three of the Carnival Corp brands that will receive the LNG ships – David Dingle, chairman of Carnival UK; Neil Palomba, president of Costa Cruises; and Felix Eichhorn, president of AIDA Cruises – gave the official signal for the keel laying of the first ship, ‘AIDAnova’, which will be delivered by Meyer Werft Papenburg during the Autumn of 2018.
“Today marked a significant milestone in the construction of this next-generation of Carnival Corporation ships featuring our ‘green cruising’ design, which will be the most environmentally friendly ships in our company’s history,” said Donald. “We are committed to continuing to reduce air emissions and improving air quality by evaluating both new and established solutions, including LNG.
“We are proud to be on the forefront of advancing LNG as a fuel source for the cruise industry, and we appreciate our long-standing partnership with Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku. We look forward to the delivery of these beautiful and innovative ships that will help us meet our top goal – to provide extraordinary vacation experiences for our guests that exceed all of their expectations,” he concluded.
“We thank Carnival Corporation and AIDA Cruises very much for their trust and their pioneering decision to implement LNG technology on board their cruise ships,” said Meyer. “The corresponding infrastructure is now being developed at numerous ports – Carnival Corporation has made a decision that not only benefits the environment, but that also is highly important for the whole cruise industry.”
Following the introduction of ‘AIDAnova’ in 2018, Carnival Corp’s Costa Cruises brand will be the recipient iof the second cruise ship that can be powered completely by LNG in 2019 . She will be built at Meyer Turku shipyard. Further LNG-powered ships for Carnival Cruise Line and P&O Cruises (UK) will follow in 2020. Costa Cruises and AIDA Cruises will each receive an additional LNG-powered ship in 2021, followed by another gas-powered ship for Carnival Cruise Line in 2022.
