Following her delivery from Mitsubishi Heavy industries ltd. (MHI) in Nagasaki during a formal ceremony, the 125,572gt AIDAprima became the 11th ship in the AIDA fleet and commenced her voyage home. on 21st April she arrived at her home port of Hamburg (above) ahead of an additional pre-inaugural cruise to Southampton 25-29th April.

The ship made her Southampton debut on 27th April and, from 30th April, Hamburg was the starting point for seven-day round trips to Southampton, le Havre, Zeebrugge and Amsterdam. The ship was christened by Emma Schweiger on 7th May in front of an audience of millions as the climax of the 827th Hamburg Port anniversary. The AIDAprima is 300m long with a beam of 37.6m and maximum draught of 8m. The ship has 1,643 staterooms, 12 restaurants, 18 bars and over 900 crewmembers. Perhaps not surprisingly, Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has logged an additional extraordinary loss of 50.8 billion Japanese Yen ($457.1 million) in its cruise ship business for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015 due to the delay in delivery of the 125,572gt AIDAprima and subsequent delay in the AIDAperla, both ordered in 2011. The additional amount brings MHI’s overall extraordinary losses throughout fiscal year 2015 to 103.911 billion Yen ($934.3 million). Following difficulties in construction of the prototype ship in fiscal year 2013 and 2014, the shipbuilder encountered design changes in the construction phase due to which the delivery of the 300m long AIDAprima was delayed. along with the design changes and the need to address faults found in the final stages, MHI booked an extraordinary loss of 53.061 billion Yen in the third quarter of fiscal year 2015. Faults included with the main engines, noise reduction measures plus the fires that broke out on board.