P&O Cruises, the UK focused contemporary market unit of Carnival Corporation & plc, has been forced to cancel its winter fly cruises from St Lucia, while the construction of its second Excel class ship has started in Germany.

Britannia’s fly cruises from St Lucia that had been scheduled to run from October 2021 to March 2022 due to lack of airlift capacity. “Unfortunately this means that the holiday you had booked on board Britannia can no longer go ahead. We are sorry for the disappointment this will cause,” the company was cited by Travel Weekly saying in a letter to affected passengers. Fly cruises from Barbados would proceed as planned, it added.

Meanwhile, assembly of P&O Cruises second Excel class ship Arvia, arriving December 2022, has started at the Meyer Werft shipyard in Germany. It will be sister ship of Iona that was completed last year, buttony entered service this summer due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first component of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered ship, the floating engine room unit (FERU), has been moved into the building hall at the Meyer Werft shipyard where Arvia will be constructed. 

Fabricated at the Neptun Werft the FERU, with Arvia's engines and LNG tanks within it,  is 140m long, 42m wide and weighs approximately 12,000 tons, P&O Cruises said in a statement.