German cruise line AIDA Cruises has celebrated the official start of construction for AIDAnova, the first cruise ship that will be fully operated – both at sea and in port – with low-emission LNG.
During a ceremony German shipbuilder Meyer Werft lowered the first building block for AIDAnova, the new mega-ship for AIDA Cruises, into place allowing for the traditional lucky coin to be placed under the first of a total of 90 blocks.
“One of the main tasks AIDA Cruises sets itself is to make cruises sustainable. With AIDAnova and its sister ship, we are sticking to this course with our pioneering work. Thanks to our trailblazing “green cruising” design, the use of only LNG in the cruise industry will become a reality in 2018.”
– Felix Eichhorn, President AIDA
With the keel-laying of AIDAnova Carnival Corporation marked the official start of construction for a total of seven next-generation cruise ships that will be fully powered by LNG for four of the ten cruise ship brands owned by the world’s largest leisure travel company.
Using LNG prevents almost completely particulate matter and sulfur dioxide emission completely, while sustainably reducing nitric oxide and CO2 emissions.
Arnold Donald, president and CEO of Carnival Corporation, together with Bernard Meyer, CEO Meyer Werft, Michael Thamm, CEO Costa Group and Carnival Asia, David Dingle, Chairman Carnival UK (P&O Cruises UK), Neil Palomba, President of Costa Cruises, and Felix Eichhorn, President of AIDA Cruises gave the official “full steam ahead” signal, ringing in a new era of the commercial use of low-emission LNG in cruise travel.
The seven LNG ships will be built by Meyer Werft in Papenburg (Germany) and Turku (Finland) and commissioned between 2018 and 2022.
In AIDAnova’s premiere season, AIDA Cruises will offer trips around the Canary islands starting in December 2018. Its twin ship with over 180,000 GT and 2,600 staterooms is set to be commissioned in the spring of 2021