OREANDA-NEWS. October 29, 2015. The Costa Group implements digital support, surveillance and planning of all technical and nautical aspects of the 25 vessels of Costa Crociere, Costa Asia and AIDA in real time. On the occasion of the new marine service unit becoming fully operational in Hamburg, Carnival Maritime today invited journalists and stakeholders to have a glimpse behind the scenes and granted insights into operations and risk & safety management. "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 improves the communication between ship and shore significantly. Among other things, the marine service unit is responsible for ship building, maintenance and refurbishment. Additionally, it takes care of trainings, 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 is located in Hamburg and employs 150 specialists.

Digital control centre on duty 24/7

The centrepiece of Carnival Maritime is the fleet operation centre, FOC. All data come together here displayed on numerous monitors. In the event of safety concerns, the nautical officers on duty support the ships in risk and crisis management and in optimizing the route planning. The FOC operates 24 hours daily. 14 officers with professional experience run the safety centre in shift operation. If required, further departments of Carnival Maritime are consulted like security, route planning or medical. "It is our goal to pursue a ‚zero-incident‘-policy. Benchmark is the aviation industry," says Jens Lassen, Executive Vice President of Carnival Maritime.

Carnival Maritime GmbH Gro?er Grasbrook 9 • 20457 Hamburg • Germany Tel. +49 (0) 40 – 30 23 93 11 00 www.carnival-maritime.com Amtsgericht Hamburg HRB 135254 USt-ID-Nr.: DE298894324 Gesch?ftsf?hrer: Jens Lassen • Dr. Ali Arnaout Deutsche Bank AG, Rostock BIC: DEUTDEBRXXX IBAN: DE04 1307 0000 0142 0009 00

Not only safety - the environment benefits, too

By digital control, potentials for optimisation regarding fuel and energy consumption as well as water and waste management can be leveraged. A significant amount of fuel can be saved when using the motor in optimal condition is only one of many examples. Technical surveillance and analysis combined with best practice experiences offer numerous approaches to develop innovative environmental and efficiency projects – for instance for the fresh water supply system, the wastewater treatment and waste management.

Hamburg offers many advantages

Carnival Maritime chose Hamburg as business location and important European harbour. "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," explains Jens Lassen. "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," Lassen continues. Also an important factor: the close proximity to partners in the marine industry and universities.

Carnival Maritime is the Marine Operations Unit of the Costa Group, Europe’s leading cruise company. The unit bundles competences and best practice experiences within marine operations in order to achieve the highest safety standards in the cruise industry for the fleet of the Costa Group with its 25 vessels of Costa Crociere, Costa Asia and AIDA Cruises. In Hamburg, Carnival Maritime unites the know-how of the Costa Group in the fields of marine, technique, health, environmental protection and safety. The fleet operations centre (FOC) monitors together with the technical departments all nautical and technical aspects of the vessels. The goal is to establish a ‘zero-incident‘-policy within risk management. The corporate division was founded in 2015 and employs 150 specialists.