---

AIDA Cruises has revealed that it will be operating a number of pre-premiere cruises on the world's first first fully LNG-fuelled cruise ship, the AIDAnova, which is due to set sail on its maiden voyage from Hamburg to the Canary Islands on December 2, 2018.

Prior to its long journey south in early December, the vessel operator will be providing its first four-day trip directly after the formal handover of the AIDAnova in Bremerhaven on November 15, and will lead from Oslo to Hamburg, where the ship is due to make its first call on November 19, 2018.

Further short cruises will also depart from Hamburg, sailing to either Rotterdam or Oslo.

As Bunker Index previously reported, shipyard Meyer celebrated the keel-laying ceremony for the AIDAnova on September 4, when it lowered the first building block into place for the first cruise ship with the capability to operate only on LNG - both at sea and in port.

A twin 180,000-gross-tonne (grt) ship is slated for completion in 2021.

The AIDAnova incorporates a so-called floating engine room unit (FERU), which is 120 metres long and 42 metres wide. The four-deck-tall component contains three LNG tanks. Two of the tanks are both just shy of 35 metres in length, with a diameter of eight meters and a volume capacity of 1,550 cubic metres (cbm) each.

A third and smaller tank with a diameter of five meters is 28 meters in length and has a volume capacity of approximately 520 cbm.