Costa considers its scrap options

Fire-damaged cruise ship Costa Allegra, which was towed to the Seychelles after an engine-room fire, will be scrapped. The 20-year-old ship, one of the oldest and smallest in the Costa fleet, was already up for sale at the time of the incident, and the line’s management has decided it is too expensive to repair.
The 927-passenger Costa Voyager has been pulled out of its Red Sea itineraries to replace Allegra for its forthcoming European itineraries in the Indian Ocean.
Meanwhile, six bids are being considered for the removal of Costa Concordia from rocks of the Italian island of Giglio, where it has lain since running aground and capsizing on January 13. The proposals involve different approaches and techniques but all are designed to ensure the mimimum environmental impact.
But while Costa had previously said the wreck would be cleared away by the end of the summer, some of the bids estimate a time frame of 10 to 12 months for the work to be completed. It could be another four weeks before Costa decide which bid to accept.
The Concordia tragedy led to an immediate slump of almost 90 per cent in bookings for Costa cruises, it was revealed yesterday. Howard Frank, Chief Operating Officer of parent company Carnival Corporation, told stock market analysts that booking levels were still down by as much as 50 per cent.
Which is further confirmation – as if it were needed – that a re-branding to lose the Costa name is imperative, as I reported last week.
A poll for TravelMole showed more than two-thirds of its subscribers agreed, as do agents interviewed by Travel Weekly magazine. Cruise Village director Phil Nuttall said: “To have two incidents so close is not bad management, it is bad luck. They may have to look at re-branding.”
Sukie Rapal, marketing director at cruise.co.uk added: “I thought the Costa name might have been able to survive after the last incident, but now there’s been another one, how are they going to overcome that.”