AIDA Sees More Growth After Cruise Passengers Jump 14 Percent

Carnival Corp. (CCL)’s AIDA Cruises will continue to grow faster than the market in 2012 after reporting a 14 percent increase in passengers last year, said Michael Thamm, president of the unit.

Rostock, Germany-based AIDA carried 584,000 passengers on its eight cruise ships last year, Thamm said in an e-mailed statement today. Passenger numbers at AIDA jumped 11 percent in the first quarter while April order growth was “well above” last year’s level, he said.

Thamm will replace Pier Luigi Foschi in July as chief executive officer of Carnival’s Costa Crociere division, owner of the Concordia cruise ship that ran aground in Italy in January, killing at least 25 people, Miami-based Carnival said on April 23. Costa includes AIDA and Spanish ship operator Ibero Cruises.

To contact the reporter on this story: Niklas Magnusson in Hamburg at nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Angela Cullen at acullen8@bloomberg.net