Navantia wins the first contract with Carnival for the reformation of their cruises

The shipyards close a deal with this North-American company for an important project in Cádiz for the vessel Triumph

Third time lucky. Navantia is now closer than ever of closing an agreement with the North-American cruise company Carnival for the maintenance of some of their vessels in Europe. Indeed, a group of technicians and commercials has been in the United States finalizing a contract to improve one of these vessels in Cádiz shipyard. The agreement implies an important reformation task of Carnival Triumph cruise. This is the first time Carnival hires the services of Navantia.

The project will be taken into action after summer, however, the first actions will start in July and August, since among the projected improvements has been included the construction of a duck tail in the stern, which gives more stability to the ship during the navigation. This structure would be built in dry and would be assembled on the dam, once the cruise is moored in the capital. Furthermore, the project includes the opening of new spaces on the decks for new cabins.

This agreement is key for the Spanish shipyard since it involves the signing , after five years of negotiation, of one of the most important cruise companies of the world. Navantia has developed transformation, improvement and maintenance tasks to more than half hundred cruises since they diversified their activity of the repairing area toward the big touristic vessel area. During these ten years they have found its niche on the market dominated by Nordic, French and Italian, signing key-contracts like the one of April 2015 with Royal Caribbean, main client of the shipyard from Cádiz.

Carnival cruise Line is a company attached to Carnival Corporation group, to which belong eleven cruising lines , the Spanish Ibero Cruceros and the German Aida Cruise among them.
Precisely, Navantia has already made maintenance tasks in April 2016 to one of these cruises, Aida Prima, who passed by the dock from Cádiz for a maintenance technical stranding . However, the biggest performance of Navantia with the cruises was with Aida Cruise, which took place in June 2017 when Aida Bella, moored in the shipyard of the capital city with all its passengers on board for an express repairing in its engine room.

The tasks also include the opening of spaces on the decks for new cabins.
The vessel took the opportunity of its scale on the bay to adjust the oil loss it had in one of the pipes connected with the propellers. Navantia had to condition part of the shipyard to combine the industrial activity with the exit of the cruise passengers visiting Cádiz. The shipyard complied with the deadline date set for repairing and marked a milestone by offering its installations for express stranding. This curriculum has allowed Carnival to fully rely on Navantia for larger projects in the shipyard from Cádiz.

Carnival Cruise is constituted by 23 vessels and its radius of action is focused specially in the Caribbean.

The Spanish company has been negotiating since 2013 with the executive team of this North-American shipping line to sign an agreement that allows repairing part of its fleet in Cádiz.

The capital’s plant has turned itself into an international benchmark in reform and modernisation of cruises. Navantia has achieved the necessary experience for leading this business and counts , at the same time, with infrastructures and technology to move forward. We must not forget that the company also won in September 2013 an important contract with the United States for repairing and maintaining for the next seven years the four destroyers that constitute the missile shield, whose operational base is located in Rota.

The Carnival Cruise Line is one of the biggest of the sector and is part of the eleven companies constituting Carnival Corporation. They have their headquarters in Florida and counts with a fleet of 23 vessels distributed in seven categories, according to their offer. These are very characteristic vessels because of their external physiognomy and interior decoration, similar to Las Vegas style. Their registered trademark is the red, white and blue chimney, with the shape of a whale’s tail. The company has a dozen of cruises who where built in the 90’s and, some of them, require improvement works.

(Source: La Voz de Cádiz)