LNG-fueled cruise ship Costa Toscana starts maiden voyage

Carnival’s Italian brand Costa Cruises says its second LNG-fueled cruise ship Costa Toscana has started its maiden voyage from Italy.

Costa Toscana is the latest-generation ship fueled by liquified natural gas. The 185,000 GT cruise ship passed seas trials in October 2021. In December, the Finnish shipyard Meyer Turku delivered the vessel to Costa Cruises.

On 5 March 2022, the ship departed from Savona towards Marseille.

Costa Group is the parent company of Italy-based Costa Cruises and Germany-based AIDA Cruises. It said it was the first in the world in the cruise industry to use LNG. The company currently has four LNG-fueled ships: AIDAnova, Costa Smeralda, Costa Toscana, and AIDACosma. Thus, the new ship is Costa Cruises’ second one to run on LNG.

“Costa Toscana is an innovative ship that which fully interprets the new cruise experience… The departure of Costa Toscana also represents a new step in the journey that will bring our fleet back to full capacity this summer. Our restart will bolster an ecosystem that before the pandemic generated an annual economic impact of 12.6 billion euros in Europe, including 3.5 billion in Italy alone, ”said Mario Zanetti, president of Costa Cruises. “I believe that cruises will soon be back to normal”.

The ship’s first cruise will include a week-long itinerary visiting Marseille, Barcelona, Valencia, Palermo, and Civitavecchia/Rome. Following the debut, the new flagship will remain positioned in the Western Mediterranean until late November.

Due to the use of LNG, it is possible to almost totally eliminate the emission of sulphur oxides (zero emissions) and particulate matter (95-100% reduction), while also significantly lowering nitrogen oxide (direct reduction of 85%) and CO2 (up to 20%) emissions.