Carnival Corporation has marked the official beginning of construction for the first of its seven next-generation cruise ships that will be fully-powered by liquefied natural gas with a keel-laying ceremony at Seatrade Europe in Hamburg.

Pioneering a new era in the use of low-carbon fuels, these new ships will be the first in the cruise industry that can use LNG to generate 100 per cent of their power both in port and on the open sea – an innovation that will reduce exhaust emissions to help protect the environment.

These seven ships, with delivery dates between 2018 and 2022, will be built by leading German and Finnish shipbuilders Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku.

Arnold Donald, president, Carnival Corporation, together with Bernard Meyer, chief executive of Meyer Yards, Michael Thamm, chief executive of Costa Group and Carnival Asia, and representatives of three of the Carnival Corporation brands that will receive the LNG ships gave the official “full steam ahead” signal for the keel laying of the first ship of the new LNG generation, AIDAnova.

The ship will be delivered by Meyer Werft Papenburg in fall 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.”

Following the introduction of AIDAnova in 2018, Carnival Corporation’s Costa Cruises brand will debut the industry’s next cruise ship that can be powered completely by LNG on the open seas in 2019 – the first steel-cutting ceremony for this ship is scheduled at the Meyer Turku shipyard in the coming week.
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 an additional LNG-powered ship for Carnival Cruise Line in 2022.