Arriving in Barcelona on June 7 on her inaugural introduction tour, the AIDAperla has launched her summer Mediterranean season with a five-night cruise from Palma de Mallorca to be followed by a three-night cruise, before she settles into her regular program of seven-night cruises.

Sailing from Palma, the AIDAperla will call at Ajaccio, Civitavecchia, Livorno and Barcelona. Also spending the winter in the Mediterranean, sailings will alternate between Palma and Barcelona, and Marseille will replace Ajaccio as a port of call. Next summer, the AIDAperla redeploys to Northern Europe.

The new ship is set to be christened by German model Lena Gercke in Palma on June 30.

AIDA will have five of its ships making 61 calls in Barcelona this year. Working with Barcelona, the company also plans to supply the AIDAperla with LNG while in port. She has dual fuel engines and can run on LNG if provided port side. The cruise line said it was in discussions with other Mediterranean ports as well.

If LNG is made available, AIDA said that emissions can be reduced significantly, as the ship spends approximately 40 percent of her time in port.

The Carnival Group’s expansion in Barcelona is also facilitating the deployment of AIDA’s next generation of LNG-fueled ships, of which the first, the AIDAnova will be homeported in Barcelona, starting in 2018.