Saga Cruises, which is part of the recently floated lifestyle company Saga plc, plans to acquire a third ship to replace the recently withdrawn Saga Ruby and may even order a newbuilding, a spokesperson for the company told Cruise Business.

A report on CruiseCritic.co.uk said the third ship should be similar in size to the 446 passenger Saga Ruby II and Saga Sapphire, which has 706 berths.

Previously, we have looked at buying the slightly older tonnage, traditional tonnage," Saga Cruises’ ceo Robin Shaw told Cruise Critic. "It's fair to say that we will evaluate all options, including newer hardware. The option of a new build is not completely off the agenda.”

The Saga group offers a wide range of services to customers ovver the age of 50. The UK cruise market generated 1.72 million passengers in 2013, of whom 1.1 million were aged 55 or more.