Digital support, surveillance and planning for all technical and nautical aspects of the 25 vessels of Costa Crociere, Costa Asia and AIDA fleets are implemented in real time by the Costa Group. Now assisting with these operations and risk/safety management is a new marine service unit, Carnival Maritime, which became fully operational today in Hamburg.
“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,” explained Michael Thamm, CEO of the Costa Group.
With fully integrated, large fleet teams, Carnival Maritime aims to improve the communication between ship and shore. Among other things, it is responsible for shipbuilding, maintenance and refurbishment, also taking care of training, route planning, technical procurement, medical services, support of the nautical and technical staff on board and auditing of the vessels with regard to safety, danger prevention and staff. The new corporate division employs 150 specialists.
At the center of Carnival Maritime’s operations is its fleet operation center (FOC), where all data comes together and is displayed across numerous monitors. The FOC operates 24 hours daily by 14 officers with professional experience who run the safety center in shifts. In the event of safety concerns, the nautical officers on duty support the ships in risk/crisis management as well as in optimizing the route planning. If required, further departments of Carnival Maritime are consulted, such as security, route planning or medical. “It is our goal to pursue a 'zero-incident' policy. Benchmark is the aviation industry,” said Jens Lassen, Executive Vice President of Carnival Maritime.
Digital control is used for the optimization of fuel and energy consumption, as well as leveraging water and waste management. Technical surveillance and analysis combined with best practice experiences offer numerous approaches to develop environmental and efficiency projects – for instance, for the fresh water supply system, the wastewater treatment and waste management.
Carnival Maritime said it chose Hamburg based on its status as an important European harbor and business location, as well as its proximity to partners in the marine industry and universities. “The city plays a key role within the maritime sector and therefore offers a well-developed infrastructure and a large talent pool of highly skilled professionals,” Lassen said. “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 hers duties, are important elements of a safety culture which we want to achieve group wide within the company.”
