British based cruise operator Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV) has acquired two more cruise ships increasing its fleet to eight ships in 2021.
CMV is set to take delivery of P&O Australia’s Pacific Dawn and Pacific Aria in Singapore in March and May 2021 respectively, increasing lower bed fleet capacity to 9,000 berths and passenger capacity by 30% in 2021.
The duo will be officially re-named in summer 2021 following dry docking, some minor upgrade and re-livery works in Singapore before embarking on CMV maiden positioning voyages via the Suez Canal to Northern Europe.
Pacific Dawn at 70,285grt, with 798 passenger cabins and carrying about 1400 passengers will be deployed on the UK market in late May 2021, while Pacific Aria at 55,819grt, with 630 passenger cabins and carrying about 1100 passengers will be deployed on the German market under the TransOcean Kreuzfahrten brand.
“The introduction of two more ships to the global ocean fleet is the next exciting chapter of our strategic growth objectives. This will enable us to service increasing market demand for our traditional brand of cruising generated by our expanding international network of in-house sales offices and developing source markets. We have now acquired five cruise ships in just five years and are firmly on course in carrying 200,000 passengers in 2021 ,” Christian Verhounig, CEO commented.
Chris Coates, Group Commercial Director added, “ As the CMV brand continues to evolve, the growing popularity of our traditional product, classic ships and destination focused cruise programs has encouraged us to accelerate plans to add capacity to the two top European cruise markets in the UK and Germany, which represent 85% of our business.”
For 2020, CMV expects close to 70% of the capacity to be sold by the year-end.
The sale of the ships will make room for the Golden Princess, which will move to P&O Australia and become the Pacific Adventure in 2020, and Pacific Encounter in 2021.