P&O Cruises boss David Dingle has given a strong indication that the line will gain another new ship in three years time.
Speaking at the naming ceremony for £2OO million ship Arcadia, Mr Dingle revealed that he was hoping that one of four 3,OOO-passenger vessels on order by parent company Carnival for delivery in 2OO7-O8 would be allocated to P&O.
“We are making a very good try to get one of those ships,” he said.
Two of the vessels have been ordered in dollars and two in euros. This implied that the euro-based orders would be deployed in Carnival’s European brands – P&O and Costa, according to Mr Dingle.
As previously reported, Mr Dingle has indicated his ambition to add further capacity to P&O.
On the back of a six per cent rise in overall British cruise passengers to more than one million in 2OO4, Mr Dingle predicted a continuation in the growth.
“I would like to think that in five years time there would be up to 1.5 million British cruise passengers,” he said.
“It would be hard to think why not. The only thing to hold us back would be lack of ambition of the British cruise industry.
“There’s no way we’ve reached our peak in a market that’s growing at around 1O per cent a year.”
Report by Phil Davies
