Tasmania re-enters talks with RMC about ferry order

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 22 March 2021 22 March 2021

The Government of the Australian state of Tasmania has decided to re- enter discussions with Rauma Marine Constructions (RMC) in Finland to build two ropax ferries after a working group had found that building them in locally would not be viable.

“We will now enter negotiations for 30 days with RMC for the new Spirit of Tasmania vessels targeting Tasmanian local content of between $50 million and $100 million across both vessels, and we expect also an additional local spend by TT-Line in the order of $40 million as part of the Tasmanian Government’s preferred way forward,” state premier Peter Gutwein said in a statement 

This is a substantial increase on the current Memorandum of Understanding, which provides for $16 million of Tasmanian content across the two vessels. 

RMC had signed a letter of intent with the Australian counterpart to build the two ships, but the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic led to a study to see if the ships could be built in Australia instead. The group completed its work earlier this month and found that building them locally would not be economic.

RMC said last year that the projected vessels would be delivered to the customer at the end of 2022 and 2023. “The vessels set to operate under the brand Spirit of Tasmania will replace the existing vessels, Spirit of Tasmania I and II (ex. Superfast III and Superfast IV), built in Turku, Finland in 1998,” RMC said in a statement. 

“The new ferries will accommodate 1,800 passengers and will have an approximate gross tonnage of 48,000. The ferries are set to operate in challenging conditions on the Melbourne, Australia – Devonport, Tasmania route,” the Finnish shipbuilder said.

P&O Cruises sees strong demand for coastal cruises at booking start

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 22 March 2021 22 March 2021

P&O Cruises, the UK focused contemporary market unit in Carnival Corporation & plc groups said it had  attracted an “overwhelming” number of bookings for its summer season of coastal cruises as they went on sale this morning. 

The three, four and seven night cruises, on flagship Britannia and new ship Iona, will set sail from Southampton between June and September.

“P&O Cruises president Paul Ludlow said in a statemen: “It is very demonstrable evidence that a holiday at sea, with all that it has to offer, is a popular and much longed-for option this summer. 

“We always hoped that these domestic cruises would be popular, given the uncertainty around holidays abroad, but we have never before seen such significant and immediate demand and it certainly shows the effects of lockdown and everyone's need for a holiday.” 

“Many thousands of guests have already made bookings and Iona's maiden voyage to the Scottish islands is already very well sold and will be a very special cruise,” he said.

Meanwhile, the online cruise agent Iglu Cruise said its traffic was up by 300% by 9am, shortly after Iona went on sale at 8:30am, according to a report by Travel Weekly.

Simone Clark, senior vice-president of global supply, said: “Many of our cruise line partners are responding to the current situation by releasing cruises for the British market sailing in UK waters for summer 2021.”

“We were confident that travellers would return to cruising as soon as the guidelines allowed, but were not sure about the appetite for booking a UK cruise. The response this morning has been resoundingly positive,” she noted.

Also today, MSC Cruises said that it was assessing the demand on the UK market, where it plans to resume operations on 20 May. The company has earmarked MSC Magnifica for the UK, but it could bring two ships or one larger vessel to cover its UIK p

Costa Crociere postpones restart to May

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 22 March 2021 22 March 2021

 

Costa Crociere the Italian company of Carnival Corporation & plc, said it has revised its plans moving its restart to May. 

‘The decision has been taken in consideration of the restrictions still in place in Italy and other European countries to contain Covid-19. Such measures do not allow the Company to offer the best cruise vacations to its guests, especially for what concerns the experience ashore,’ the company said in a statement.

It had intended to resume cruising from Italian ports on 2& March.

In line with the new plan, Costa Smeralda's departure in Italy is planned for May 1, with an unchanged itinerary, sailing guests to beautiful Italian locations, with three and four day mini-cruises or alternatively a seven-day cruise, calling at Savona, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Messina and Cagliari. 

From June 12, Costa Smeralda will return to sailing one-week cruises in the western Mediterranean, with visits to Italy (Savona, Civitavecchia and Palermo), France (Marseille) and Spain (Barcelona and Palma de Mallorca).

The departure date of Costa Luminosa, the second Costa ship scheduled to resume service, is postponed to May 16. It will sail from Trieste, and the following day from Bari, confirming its program of one-week cruises in Greece and Croatia, in accordance with recent roadmap for the resumption of international tourism in Greece. 

MSC Cruises plans to board passengers at three UK ports

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Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen

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Published: 22 March 2021 22 March 2021

MSC Cruises, which said last week that it would start UK domestic cruises on 20 May, plans to board passengers at three different ports.

These would be Southampton, Liverpool and Glasgow, CEO Gianni Onorato said in a webcast interview. Until 21 June, the  maximum number of passengers would be limited to 1,000 and normal levels boarded after that, in line with UK government rules, he said in the interview with Travel Weekly.

The current plan is to use the 92,000 gross ton MSC Magnifica on this itinerary, but Onorato said the decision would be made in the near future as part of the company’s other restart plans.

It is also possible that a larger ship or two ships might be used, he added.