By
Rebecca Gibson |
Costa Group opened its new marine service unit in Hamburg, Germany on 28 October.
The Carnival Maritime centre will enable 150 specialists to provide real-time digital support, surveillance and planning services to cover all of the technical, nautical and safety aspects of the 25 vessels in the Costa Cruises, Costa Asia and AIDA Cruises brands.
Founded in 2015 and staffed by 150 employees, the marine service unit is responsible for shipbuilding, maintenance and refurbishment, as well as training, route planning, technical procurement and medical services. It will also provide support to nautical and technical crew, and carry out safety audits on both employees and vessels.
It is hoped that by using real-time technical surveillance and data analysis, the brands in the Costa Group could find new ways to optimise fuel and energy consumption, water and waste management, and develop innovative environmental and efficiency projects.
“By founding Carnival Maritime, we invested in the most elaborated technologies to create a marine operations unit that supports our captains the best possible way,” said Michael Thamm, CEO of Costa Group.
Located at the heart of Carnival Maritime is the fleet operation centre, which operates 24 hours a day and is staffed by 14 officers on a rotational basis. If safety concerns arise onboard one of Costa Group’s cruise vessels, the on-duty nautical officers can provide risk and crisis management, as well as route planning support.
“It is our goal to pursue a zero-incident policy,” said Jens Lassen, executive vice president of Carnival Maritime. “The benchmark is the aviation industry.”
According to Lassen, Carnival Maritime opened the unit in Hamburg because the city plays a key role within the maritime sector and offers a well developed infrastructure and a large talent pool of highly skilled professionals. Another important factor was the city’s close proximity to partners in the marine industry and universities.
“For us, an international crew with an excellent technical expertise and a corporate culture where the individual takes responsibility and an innovative approach to his or her duties, are important elements of the safety culture that we want to achieve group-wide within the company,” said Lassen.