Costa Crociere Confirms Options with Fincantieri for New Ship

The Italian company Costa Crociere SpA, announced has exercised an option with Fincantieri for the construction of a new 92,700 gross tonnage cruise ship. The new ship, which is scheduled for delivery in March 2010, will be built at Fincantieri’s Marghera shipyard, at an all-in cost of approximately 420 million euros. The vessel will have 2,260 lower passenger berths and a total of 1,130 cabins, 772 (68%) of which with private verandas, this being the highest percentage of veranda cabins in the whole Costa fleet. She will be the sister ship of another 92,700-tonner, already announced, also to be built in Marghera and scheduled to enter service in spring 2009.

The announcement makes four Costa Crociere ships that have been commissioned from Fincantieri, with 10,520 lower berths and a total investment of almost $2.6b. In addition to the two 92,700 gross tonnage running mates to be built in Marghera, two more 112,000 gross tonnage vessels – sister ships of the flagship Costa Concordia – are under construction in the Genoa-Sestri Ponente yard: the first is the Costa Serena, due in May 2007, while the second will be ready by the summer of 2009.

By the end of 2010, when the last of the 4 new buildings is delivered, the Costa fleet will be 15 strong and have a total of 30,800 lower berths, thus further consolidating its position as Europe’s largest and most advanced.