International classification society Bureau Veritas has recognised MSC Cruises, the world’s largest privately-owned cruise line, with the 2016 Special Safety Best Practices Award for the high level of voluntary-enhanced safety procedures implemented across its entire fleet.
The award follows the performance of additional drills witnessed by Bureau Veritas for better training and readiness of the crew in case of fire, damage stability and passenger evacuation situations. This project, demonstrating high training skills and adherence to performing internal safety procedures over a continuous period, was initiated in 2012 and conducted by five BV survey centres in Europe, the US, South America, North Africa and Asia, covering the entire MSC Cruises fleet.
“When it comes to on-board safety, MSC Cruises will always strive to be at the forefront of innovation. We are thus highly honoured to receive this international recognition, as the safety and security of our guests and crew are and will always be our number one priority,” said Emilio La Scala, President and Managing Director, MSC Cruise Management.
MSC Cruises previously won BV’s Seven Golden Pearls award when in 2013 BV recognised MSC’s commitment to safeguarding the marine ecosystem, as well as protecting the health and safety of its passengers and staff. The Golden Pearls award recognises corporate compliance with the four highest international standards in the areas of environment (ISO 14001), health and safety (OHSAS 18001), food safety (ISO 22000) and energy efficiency (ISO 50001), together with the additional notation Cleanship-2-AWT, for the three domains of potential pollution: air, water and waste.
In 2014, MSC Cruises launched an investment plan to support the second phase of its 12-vessel fleet growth through the order of two ships of the Meraviglia generation and two others of the Seaside generation (plus an option for a third) and in February 2016, confirmed the existing options to build a further two now Meraviglia Plus ships with an even greater capacity. In April 2016 this rose to EUR 9 bln with the announcement of signing of the letter of intent to build a further four ships, each with next-generation LNG propulsion technology. Consequently, between 2017 and 2026 a total of up to 11 new, next-generation MSC Cruises ships will come into service.
