S.p.A. (), operating as Costa Cruises, is an Italian
cruise line
A cruise line is a company that operates cruise ships that operate on ocean or rivers and which markets cruises to the public. Cruise lines are distinct from passenger lines which are primarily concerned with transportation of passengers. Though ...
founded in 1854 and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of
Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation & plc is a British-American cruise operator with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across 10 cruise line brands. A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of two companies – Panama-incorporated, US-headquartered Carniv ...
since 2000. Based in
Genoa, Italy
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...
, the cruise line primarily caters to the Italian cruise market, but the company's 11 ships, which all sail under the Italian flag, provide itineraries sailing to countries globally.
[Company profile]
." Costa Cruises. Retrieved on January 20, 2010.
History
Costa Line
Founded in
Genoa
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...
in 1854 by Giacomo Costa (1836-1916) as Giacomo Costa fu Andrea, the company originally operated
cargo ship
A cargo ship or freighter is a merchant ship that carries cargo, goods, and materials from one port to another. Thousands of cargo carriers ply the world's seas and oceans each year, handling the bulk of international trade. Cargo ships are usu ...
s, carrying olive oils and textiles.
In 1924, the company was passed to the founder's sons (Federico, Eugenio and Enrico) and started commercial activities, buying the ship, ''Ravenna''. In 1947, the name of the company was changed to Linea C.
Commercial activities continued for one more year until 1948, with the introduction of passenger services,
beginning with regular services between Italy and
South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
operated by the ship, ''
Anna C.
'' She marked the start of scheduled operations between Italy and South America after being the first
ocean liner
An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships).
Ca ...
to cross the
South Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Africa, Europe and ...
following
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
![TN Eugenio C](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/TN_Eugenio_C.jpg)
In 1958, Costa commissioned their first purpose-built ship, ''
Federico C ,'' which provided a liner service between
Genoa, Italy
Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Regions of Italy, Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of t ...
and
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
via
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
. In 1959, the company gradually transitioned into offering more pleasure holidays, with trips being offered in the
Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
and the
Caribbean
The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...
regions.
The second purpose built ship, ''
Eugenio C
The SS ''Eugenio C'' was a 1966 Italian built ocean liner/cruise ship originally owned by the Costa Line. She was scrapped as the ''Big Red'' at Alang, India in June 2005.
History
''Eugenio C'' was ordered for the South American service by Cos ...
'', debuted in 1966, designed by famous naval architect Nicolò Costanzi. Linea C went on to own 12 more ships by 1980, making the company the owner of the world's largest fleet of passenger ships.
In 1986, Linea C changed its name to Costa Cruises and became a cruise-centered business.
The line had decided to modernize its fleet by the late 1980s, and ordered two new ships in 1987, which became ''
Costa Classica'' and ''
Costa Romantica'' entering service in 1991 and 1993 respectively. The line also converted and completely rebuilt two former container ships into
''Costa Marina'' and
''Costa Allegra'' around the same time as ordering the two new ships. Costa wanted to create a new upscale European brand for their new ships and launched the short-lived EuroLuxe brand. ''
Costa Victoria
''Costa Victoria'' was a ''Victoria''-class cruise ship launched in 1995 and operated by Costa Cruises, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc, from 1996 until 2020. Built at Bremen, Germany, she was designed to reflect the spirit of Italy, w ...
'' debuted in 1996, and was the final ship designed under the Costa family brand before the line was taken over by
Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation & plc is a British-American cruise operator with a combined fleet of over 100 vessels across 10 cruise line brands. A dual-listed company, Carnival is composed of two companies – Panama-incorporated, US-headquartered Carniv ...
.
In March 1997, Carnival and
Airtours
MyTravel Group plc was a British, global travel group headquartered in Rochdale, England. It was founded in 1972 as Airtours Group. The group included two in-house airlines, MyTravel Airways UK and MyTravel Airways Scandinavia, and various t ...
PLC purchased Costa Cruises for $300 million, on a 50:50 basis.
At the time, Costa Cruises was the leading European cruise line, with an estimated market share of 19%.
Carnival subsidiary
After Carnival's take over, a new-building program commenced for the line, utilizing Carnival Cruise Lines
Spirit-class and
Destiny-class design platforms for the new ships. They line would also utilize Carnival's designer Joe Farcus, who undertook the interior design, moving away from the contemporary Italian style of the previous ships to more themed public spaces similar to Carnival Cruise Line. The first ship delivered under Carnival Corp management, was ''
Costa Atlantica
''Costa Atlantica'' is a owned and operated by Adora Cruises. She was built in 2000 by the Kvaerner Masa-Yards Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland.
''Costa Atlantica'' was sold to CSSC Carnival Cruise Shipping in late 2019.
Design an ...
'' in 2000.
![MS Costa Atlantica](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/51/MS_Costa_Atlantica.jpg)
In 2000, Carnival Corporation took full control of Costa Crociere after buying out Airtours' 50% interest for $525 million. In 2002, Carnival Corporation and
P&O Princess Cruises
P&O Princess Cruises plc (stock symbol in London and NYSE: POC) was a shipping company that existed between 2000 and 2003, operating the P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, P&O Cruises Australia, A'Rosa Cruises, AIDA Cruises and Ocean Village brande ...
merged to form Carnival Corporation & plc, bringing together both companies' assets under one corporation.
As of 2018, Costa accounted for approximately 12% of Carnival Corporation & plc's revenue.
In 2004, Costa Crociere purchased control of
AIDA Cruises
AIDA Cruises is a German cruise line founded in the early 1960s and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc since 2003. Based in Rostock, Germany, AIDA Cruises caters primarily to the German-speaking market; as seago ...
of
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. Carnival Corporation and the Spanish tour operator
Orizonia Group
The Orizonia Group (''Orizonia Corporaciόn'' in Spanish) was a Spanish tour operator which was founded in 2006. The company was based on the Spanish island of Mallorca, in the Mediterranean Sea. It was the third largest tour operator in Spain.
...
created a joint venture in 2007,
Ibero Cruises
Ibero Cruises ( es, Ibero Cruceros) was a British-American and Spanish owned cruise line based in Madrid, Spain. The cruise line was aimed at the Spanish and Portuguese speaking markets. Iberocruceros operated voyages from Europe, the Mediterran ...
,
which was absorbed into Costa Cruises in 2014.
The company attracted international attention when ''
Costa Concordia
''Costa Concordia'' () was a cruise ship operated by Costa Crociere. She was the first of her class, followed by sister ships ''Costa Serena'', ''Costa Pacifica'', ''Costa Favolosa'' and ''Costa Fascinosa'', and ''Carnival Splendor'' built for ...
''
ran aground and capsized off the coast of Italy on 13 January 2012.
Thirty-two people died in the disaster.
Six weeks later, the company made headlines again when a fire on ''
Costa Allegra'' left it drifting without power for 13 hours in waters near
Somalia
Somalia, , Osmanya script: 𐒈𐒝𐒑𐒛𐒐𐒘𐒕𐒖; ar, الصومال, aṣ-Ṣūmāl officially the Federal Republic of SomaliaThe ''Federal Republic of Somalia'' is the country's name per Article 1 of thProvisional Constituti ...
frequented by pirates, before the ship was taken under tow.
In February 2018, Costa announced its partnership with the Italian
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
club,
Juventus
Juventus Football Club (from la, iuventūs, 'youth'; ), colloquially known as Juve (), is a professional Association football, football club based in Turin, Piedmont, Italy, that competes in the Serie A, the top tier of the Italian football leagu ...
.
Due do the Covid pandemic of 2020, Costa sold off ships in it's fleet including the ''Costa Victoria'' and ''Costa neoRomantica'' to help cut costs. It also lead to the continued long term layup of the ''Costa Magica'' and ''Costa Serena''.
In December 2019, Costa debuted ''
Costa Smeralda
The Costa Smeralda (, ; sdn, Monti di Mola; sc, Montes de Mola) is a coastal area and tourist destination in northern Sardinia, Italy, with a length of some 20 km, although the term originally designated only a small stretch in the comm ...
'' and became the second cruise line to operate a cruise ship fully powered by
liquefied natural gas
Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is natural gas (predominantly methane, CH4, with some mixture of ethane, C2H6) that has been cooled down to liquid form for ease and safety of non-pressurized storage or transport. It takes up about 1/600th the volu ...
(LNG), following AIDA's one year earlier. ''Costa Smeralda'' was joined by her sister LNG ship, ''Costa Toscana'', in 2021.
In 2022, parent company Carnival Corp. announced they would be transferring ships out of the fleet to help balance overall fleet capacities due to the pandemic and the selling off of numerous ships. It was announced the ''Costa Luminosa'' would be transferred to Carnival Cruise Line, the ''Costa Venezia'' to the new Costa by Carnival brand in 2023, and the Costa Firenze to the Costa by Carnival in 2024''.''
Fleet
Current fleet
Laid Up
Former fleet
Costa's former passenger ship fleet in chronological order:
Accidents and incidents
''See also
Carnival Cruise Line's accidents and incidents for incidents associated with the parent company's other cruise operations.''
MV ''Bianca C.'' fire and sinking
On 22 October 1961, ''Bianca C.'' was off
Grenada
Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...
when an explosion occurred in the engine room. Two crew members died in the explosion and the ship subsequently caught on fire. Local fishermen helped rescue the passengers and crew, but as the local authorities did not have the equipment to extinguish the fire, the ship was left to burn until the British frigate arrived from Puerto Rico. The burning ship was in the main anchorage and would block the harbour if it sank there, so the ''Londonderry'' towed it to a different location where the ''Bianca C.'' sank on 24 October 1961.
''Costa Concordia'' capsizing
![Collision of Costa Concordia 5 crop](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Collision_of_Costa_Concordia_5_crop.jpg)
On 13 January 2012, ''
Costa Concordia
''Costa Concordia'' () was a cruise ship operated by Costa Crociere. She was the first of her class, followed by sister ships ''Costa Serena'', ''Costa Pacifica'', ''Costa Favolosa'' and ''Costa Fascinosa'', and ''Carnival Splendor'' built for ...
'' ran aground off
Isola del Giglio
Isola del Giglio (; en, Giglio Island, lat, Igilium) is an Italian island and comune in the Tyrrhenian Sea, off the coast of Tuscany, and is part of the Province of Grosseto. The island is one of seven that form the Tuscan Archipelago, lying w ...
in
Tuscany
Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze'').
Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...
. The ship capsized and partially sank, killing 32 people. In 2014, the ship was
parbuckled and refloated with
caissons
Caisson (French for "box") may refer to:
* Caisson (Asian architecture), a spider web ceiling
* Caisson (engineering), a sealed underwater structure
* Caisson (lock gate), a gate for a dock or lock, constructed as a floating caisson
* Caisson (pe ...
, and in July 2014, she was towed to the
Port of Genoa
The Port of Genoa it is one of the most important seaports in Italy, in competition with the ports of Marseille and Barcelona in the Mediterranean Sea. With a trade volume of 51.6 million tonnes, it is the busiest port of Italy after the port of ...
over a period of five days, where it was dismantled and eventually scrapped. The total cost of the disaster was estimated to be over $2 billion.
On 11 February 2015, the captain at the helm during the sinking, Francesco Schettino, was found guilty by an Italian court of multiple manslaughter, causing the shipwreck, and abandoning his passengers.
He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
An Italian appeals court on 31 May 2016 upheld the 16-year prison sentence.
''Costa Allegra'' engine room fire
On 27 February 2012, ''
Costa Allegra'' suffered an engine room fire and went adrift in the Indian Ocean. After several days adrift without power, the ship was towed to the
Seychelles
Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...
island of
Desroches
Desroches Island or Île Desroches is the main island of the Amirante Islands, part of the Outer Islands of the Seychelles.
It is located 227 km southwest of Victoria, Seychelles. It is 5.5 km long and has a land area of 4.027 km2. ...
, but was unable to dock there. She was then towed to
Mahé, Seychelles
Mahé is the largest island of Seychelles, with an area of , lying in the northeast of the Seychellean nation in the Somali Sea part of the Indian Ocean. The population of Mahé was 77,000, as of the 2010 census. It contains the capital city ...
, where the passengers disembarked. No casualties were reported.
On 9 March 2012, it was announced that ''Costa Allegra'' would not return to service with Costa, and she was given to the shipping company, Themis Maritime Ltd.
In late 2012, ''Costa Allegra'' was beached at Aliaga, Turkey, for scrapping.
Temporary shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic
Costa cruises around the world were cancelled in March 2020 due to the worldwide
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
Costa began new sailings on 6 September in Italy, initially with two ships, ''Costa Deliziosa'' and ''Costa Diadema''. At that time, the line required all passengers to be from Italy. By 27 September 2020, however, it was reported that, having implemented strict health protocols to protect its staff and guests, "Costa Cruises will be available for all European citizens who are residents in any of the countries listed in the most recent decree from the Prime Minister of Italy".
A report on 9 January 2021 stated that some cruise lines were hoping to resume some sailings in Europe in the near future but added that "it remains to be seen whether this will go ahead with much of the continent still in lockdown". Costa's Web site at that time was indicating no sailings in January but was hoping to start on 28 February with ''Costa Firenze'', on 2 April with ''Costa Deliziosa'', on 3 April with ''Costa Magica'', and so on. Only Italian ports would be used initially, and the gradual restart would accept only guests from Italy.
Gallery
File:Costa Mediterranea Funnel Port of Tallinn 15 June 2017.jpg, Funnel
A funnel is a tube or pipe that is wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, used for guiding liquid or powder into a small opening.
Funnels are usually made of stainless steel, aluminium, glass, or plastic. The material used in its construct ...
of ''Costa Mediterranea''
File:Costa Mediterranea Lifeboat 1 Port of Tallinn 15 June 2017.jpg, Lifeboat
Lifeboat may refer to:
Rescue vessels
* Lifeboat (shipboard), a small craft aboard a ship to allow for emergency escape
* Lifeboat (rescue), a boat designed for sea rescues
* Airborne lifeboat, an air-dropped boat used to save downed airmen
A ...
dually used as a tender boat on ''Costa Mediterranea''
File:Costa Magica auf Fjorde-Tour - panoramio.jpg, Pool deck space and water slide on ''Costa Magica''
File:Costa Luminosa central Pool.jpg, Central pool on ''Costa Luminosa''
File:Costa Favolosa Teatro Hortensia 2.jpg, Theatre in ''Costa Favolosa''
File:Buffet Andromeda.JPG, Buffet on ''Costa Luminosa''
References
Notes
Bibliography
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
Costa Line – Linea "C" Page 1A – The Early Liners 1948–65
{{Authority control
Carnival Corporation & plc
Companies based in Genoa
Cruise lines
Hospitality companies established in 1924
Shipping companies of Italy