“Our target is to grow organically,” said Gianni Onorato, CEO of MSC Cruises. “We see a lot of opportunity for our company.”

Market demands are driving that growth, as MSC confirmed another newbuild order on Thursday, giving the company a pipeline of 13 newbuilds from 2017 through 2026.

Following the christening of the new MSC Seaview last weekend, Thursday also marked a milestone in cruise industry history at STX France for MSC. The Bellissima was floated out, the coi ceremony took place for the Grandiosa and steel was cut for the newly-named Virtuosa.

In addition, MSC inked a deal for a fourth 4,888-guest Meraviglia-plus class ship to be delivered in 2023, and to be powered by LNG. The company also made its first two LNG-powered World Class ships official, signing the contract.

“The three ships together, the Bellissima, Grandiosa and Virtuosa, have a capacity of one million passengers (per year), that is a big thing,” said Onorato, speaking to Cruise Industry News.

According to Onorato, when MSC’s expansion plan is complete in 2027, the 25-ship fleet should be able to carry around 5.3 million cruise guests per year.

According to the 2018-2019 Cruise Industry News Annual Report, that would put MSC in line to compete as the world’s largest single cruise brand by passenger capacity.

“This year we are growing by 20 percent,” Onorato said.

Growth is global for the brand. In China, the Lirica was replaced by the bigger Splendida and the Bellissima will also move to Asia in 2020.

“We want to grow in North America, we will never be close to the big guys but we can have our piece of the cake,” he explained.

For winter 2019-2020, the Divina and Seaside will be based in Miami, joined by the Meraviglia and Armonia, which will sail to Cuba.

Summer plans call for the Seaside to stay in the market, while the Armonia continues its Miami-based Cuba program.

“In the Mediterranean next year we will grow by 28 percent, and this year we grew in Northern Europe by almost 30 percent … we are growing organically in different areas,” Onorato continued.

That also includes other regions where MSC is the dominant player. In South Africa, capacity is expected to grow by 25 percent, while another 20 percent uptick comes in South America.

“We are distributing our capacity in all the markets we operate,” Onorato said.

Investments are coming shoreside in hiring, training and crew recruitment, while a recently-opened technical office in the UK continues to expand.

Onorato said a key focus area for the company has been innovation, making sure ships that are designed for decades-long service life stay at the top of their game, thus helping drive the development of the company’s MSC for Me app.

“The ships need to be technologically advanced to be able to translate the present and future needs of our customers,” he added.