24 June 2008

Costa hits 1m bookings mark five weeks early

Costa Cruises has topped the record figure of one million bookings for the yearÃ¢â¬â¢s cruises some five weeks earlier than in 2007.

The one million mark was reached on June 10, 37 days earlier than last year.

The Italian line expects to end 2008 with a passenger increase of six per cent over the 1.1 million carried last year.

The target is to reach 1.5 million passengers in 2010, representing growth of more than 35% in three years.

This is supported by a major fleet expansion programme comprising five new ships due for delivery by 2012, worth a total of Ã¢'š~¬2.4 billion.

The addition of these new ships will lead to a 50% increase in the capacity of the fleet, which will be 17-strong in four yearÃ¢â¬â¢s time with berths for 46,400 passengers.

Costa chairman and CEO Pier Luigi Foschi said: Ã¢â¬ÅâœThanks to the healthy trend in our global sales, reflecting the increasing popularity of our product we have done even better than last year, when we celebrated the record of one million customers, set in mid-July, for the first time in Europe.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœThis is a truly excellent performance, which consolidates and confirms our position as EuropeÃ¢â¬â¢s number one cruise line and rewards the efforts of the 15,000-plus people who work for Costa Cruises.Ã¢â¬~

by Phil Davies