Costa Industries history

In 1947 “Giacomo Costa fu Andrea” changed its name to “Linea C”, a line that would become famous over the course of more than three decades of transatlantic service to and from Latin America.

March 31, 1948: the first passenger ship in the Costa fleet, the Anna C, leaves Genoa and is the first Italian liner to cross the southern Atlantic after the war and the first to offer passenger cabins with air conditioning.

Among the early cruises are those in the Mediterranean on the Anna C in 1953.

1957: the Federico C is launched from the shipyards at Genoa Sestri Ponente; she is the first new transatlantic liner built specifically for the Costa fleet and offers Guests a superior level of facilities, including air conditioning in all spaces.

1968: the Franca C introduces the “fly+cruise” package for the Caribbean, a formula that will revolutionize the concept of the vacation.

In 1986, Linea C became Costa Cruises, with cruising as its core business.

In 1997, Costa was acquired jointly by Carnival Corporation and Airtours.

Costa Cruises' modern history begins in 2000, when Carnival purchased the Airtours shares and the brand became fully part of Carnival Corp.

2003: Costa Cruises is the first cruise line in Europe to launch 2 new ships in the same year: the Costa Mediterranea, in June, and the Costa Fortuna, in November.

2005: Costa Cruises is the first company in the world to be assigned RINA’s Green Star for the entire fleet, an important form of recognition of compliance with environmental standards which are actually stricter than the prevailing provisions of the international MARPOL convention.

The ill-fated Costa Concordia, a sister ship to Fortuna and Magica, was launched in July 2006.

2007: on July 17 Costa Cruises become the first cruise line in Europe to set (and exceed) the record mark of 1 million Guest bookings in one year.

But 2009 also brought the first of a new prototype.

Costa Deliziosa, a sister ship, joined Costa's fleet in January 2010.

Who is Costa Cruises' CEO? Michael Thamm (2012 – )

In November 2014, Costa launched a new flagship, Costa Diadema.

In January 2015, the line spent 19 million euros on an extensive restyling of Costa Atlantica at Huarun Dadong Dockyard in Shanghai.