The Costa Luminosa and the Costa Pacifica – the two Costa ships that will be christened together during a record-breaking event on June 5, 2009 in Genoa, Italy – recently successfully completed the official sea trials that confirmed the operating efficiency of plants, equipment and engines.

The two ships, the 13th and 14th of Costa’s fleet, and both built by Fincantieri for a total investment of approximately € 900 million, departed from the Marghera (Venice) and Genoa-Sestri Ponente yards to make their first sea crossing to carry out the tests.

During the sea trials, the Costa Pacifica and the Costa Luminosa sailed at their maximum speed (more than 23 knots = 40 km/h) for eight consecutive hours to test ship resistance. Tests also included a “crash stop,” meaning a total stop from top speed to determine how many meters the ship travels before coming to a stop during an emergency. During the “UMS” test, the Costa Pacifica and the Costa Luminosa sailed for six consecutive hours under the automatic control of the power and propulsion systems. Finally, during the “black out” test, electric power was cut off to check that all ship functions automatically restart.

After completing the tests, the two Costa ships returned to the yards, the Costa Luminosa to Marghera and the Costa Pacifica to Genoa, to complete the fitting out operations prior to entering service. The Costa Luminosa will be ready at the end of April 2009, while the Costa Pacifica will be delivered one month later. The two ships will be christened together during an extraordinary record-breaking event on June 5 in Genoa.

Costa Cruises is the cruise line with the world’s biggest fleet expansion plan: five new ships (including the Costa Luminosa, the Costa Pacifica and the Costa Deliziosa) to be delivered by 2012 for a total investment of € 2.4 billion. Three of these ships will be delivered in less than one year. The Costa Deliziosa, the sister ship of the Costa Luminosa, will be delivered at the end of January 2010, after the Costa Luminosa and the Costa Pacifica. All five ships are being built in Italy by Fincantieri, and each one requires the professional expertise of nearly 3,000 workers from Fincantieri and roughly 500 linked industry companies, the majority of which are Italian. The five new ships represent a 50% increase in the capacity of the Costa fleet, which is ranked 5th in the world and is Europe’s largest. In fact, in 2012, the fleet will consist of 17 vessels with a total capacity of 46,400 passengers.