Carnival Corp. Exercises Option for New Costa Ship

Carnival Corp. announced Tuesday it had exercised an option for a new 92,700-ton, 2,260 passenger cruise ship for Costa Cruises, which, in addition to four other ships on order, will increase the size of Costa's fleet to 15 ships. The company also extended an option for a previously announced 86,000-ton Holland America Line ship. The new Costa ship will be built by Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri and is scheduled for delivery in March 2010 at an all-in cost of approximately $556 million. Micky Arison, Carnival Corp.'s chairman and CEO, said that continued investment in new ship construction would allow Costa to maintain its healthy position in Europe. With the addition of the new Costa ship, Carnival Corp. now has 18 new ships on order, 12 of which are being built by Fincantieri.