Costa Crusies has taken delivery of Costa Firenze, designed and built by Fincantieri in the Marghera shipyard in Venice, as the company looks forward to resuming operations in 2021
The 135,500-gt vessel can accommodate more than 5,200 guests and is part of a development plan that includes seven new ships to be delivered to the Costa Group by 2023, for a total investment of more than €6BN (US$7.34BN). Costa Firenze is the fourth of these new ships to be delivered, with three more to come.
Eleven of Costa’s current fleet of 14 ships were built by Fincantieri whose chief executive Giuseppe Bono said “Costa Firenze is the third cruise ship we have delivered since September,” adding “The delivery is an important moment because it is the concrete demonstration that the company is getting back to its normal production activity. I would also like to underline that the financial and economic situation of Fincantieri has not changed significantly compared to what we communicated in the previous quarters. The company has proven to be very resilient, avoiding cancelled orders and strengthening relations with cruise sector customers.”
Costa Group and Carnival Asia group chief executive Michael Thamm said he hoped the delivery of the ship is a sign of hope for the beleaguered cruise sector.
“This ship represents the most tangible evidence of the will of our group to restart. Our hope is that people will soon be able to travel again and that more ships will set sail and contribute to the revitalisation of tourism in Italy, Europe and globally,” said Mr Thamm.
He added, “Looking beyond the pandemic, Costa’s goal is to design the future of sustainable and zero-emissions cruising and we hope our long-lasting partnership with Fincantieri can bring our companies to work together on a roadmap that can lead to this ambitious, yet essential, objective.”
The interior design of Costa Firenze is inspired by the Florentine Renaissance. Costa said the design choices for the common spaces are intended to invoke a stroll in a Florentine street or square. Gastronomic offerings are based on Mediterranean cuisine, with a wide choice of dining options including 13 bars and seven restaurants.
Classification society RINA has classed the vessel as ‘Green Star 3’, a voluntary notation covering all the main aspects of a ship’s environmental impact and requiring maximum protection and prevention across areas such as waste, grey water, black water, machinery oil, CO2, ozone, greenhouse gases, particulate matter, sulphur oxides, nitrogen and ballast water, among others. In addition to compliance with environmental sustainability standards, the certification also recognises the design and operating procedures that Costa has implemented voluntarily in construction and navigation, aimed at outperforming the environmental protection requirements of international regulations.
Costa Firenze will first sail in the Mediterranean in 2021, providing two different week-long itineraries in the western Mediterranean. Post October 2021, the ship will move to Asia to join her sister ship Costa Venezia, also built by Fincantieri in the Monfalcone shipyard, and in operation since March 2019.
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