Private company

AIDA Cruises

Logo: Prof. Kleiber-Wurm u. Feliks Büttner for AIDA Cruises, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

German cruise line

AIDA Cruises is a German cruise line founded in the early 1960s and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Costa Cruises, which in turn belongs to Carnival Corporation. Based in Rostock, Germany, AIDA Cruises caters primarily to the German-speaking market; as seagoing "club resorts", AIDA ships have on-board amenities and facilities designed to attract younger, more active vacationers. As of September 2023, the cruise line operates 11 ships.2 Wikipedia text CC BY-SA 4.0

Last updated Oct 20, 2026.

Overview

1960Founded1
  • Industrytourism industry1
  • HeadquartersRostock1
  • Websiteaida.de
  • Legal formpublic company1

See how the biggest companies compare on our leaderboards

Hauptverwaltung der AIDA Cruises Branch of Costa Crociere in Rostock Am Strande - Foto 2018 © Wolfgang Pehlemann P1260658
Photo: Wolfgang Pehlemann, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, via Wikimedia Commons5

AIDA Cruises is a German cruise line founded in the early 1960s and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Costa Cruises, which in turn belongs to Carnival Corporation. Based in Rostock, Germany, AIDA Cruises caters primarily to the German-speaking market; as seagoing "club resorts", AIDA ships have on-board amenities and facilities designed to attract younger, more active vacationers. As of September 2023, the cruise line operates 11 ships.2

Corporate structure

AIDA Cruises is part of a group headed by Carnival Corporation. 20 entities, 7 countries on record. Switch between the flow chart and the network, and select any entity to see its details.

Built from parent and subsidiary links from GLEIF, the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (CC0); subsidiaries, stakes and holdings from Wikidata (CC0). Each entity in the chart links to its source.

What it owns

What AIDA Cruises reports owning in its annual reports to the SEC: buildings, land and equipment, real estate and locations, investments, intangible assets and inventory, at the end of its latest fiscal year and a year before.

Stakes and holdings (Wikidata)

  • AIDAcara
  • AIDAluna

Things Wikidata records the company as owning, with the share when stated.1

The story

The company was founded in 1952 as VEB Deutsche Seereederei Rostock (German Shipping Company Rostock) as the German Democratic Republic's state-owned shipping company, based at Rostock, and became VEB Deutfracht/Seereederei Rostock in 1973. It began its passenger operations with Völkerfreundschaft ("Peoples' Friendship"), in the 1960s. After the reunification of Germany in the early 1990s Deutfracht/Seereederei Rostock was privatised and became Deutsche Seereederei Rostock GmbH. DSR acquired Seetours of Bremen and cruises were marketed under the Seetours brand. On 1 January 1998, DSR split their operations into cargo and tourism, with a new company Arkona Touristik taking over the cruise business. In 2000 a company was formed, known as AIDA Cruises, with P&O Cruises acquiring a 51% stake in the new organisation, and Arkona Touristik retaining the other 49%.

As subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc

In 2001, P&O Princess Cruises acquired the remaining 49% interest in AIDA and the cruise business

associated with Seetours International. In 2003, P&O Princess merged with Carnival Corporation, to form Carnival Corporation, the world's largest cruise holiday company.

The Seetours cruise business, that had been acquired by P&O, was rebranded as AIDA Cruises in 2004.

Following the merger, executive control of AIDA Cruises was transferred to Costa Cruises, one of the main operating companies of Carnival Corporation & plc, with responsibility for the group's European brands. AIDA Cruises is now one of ten brands owned by Carnival Corporation & plc, based at Miami, Florida. AIDA cruises has been led by President Felix Eichhorn since 1 September 2015. In 2025, it accounted for 4.1% of the worldwide cruise line market share.

In October 2017, AIDAcara departed from Hamburg on the company's first World Cruise. After a 116-day sailing, the ship returned to Hamburg on 10 February 2018. The ship visited Southampton, Lisbon, Madeira, Rio de Janeiro, Ushuaia, Easter Island, Tahiti, Singapore, and the Maldives, among other destinations. On 8 October 2018, AIDAaura left Hamburg on the company's second World Cruise; the 117-day voyage visited 41 ports in 20 countries on four continents. Several of the destinations were new to the company, including South Africa, Namibia, Melbourne, Tasmania, Fiji, Samoa and New Caledonia.

In December 2018, AIDA debuted AIDAnova, the first cruise ship to be fully powered by liquefied natural gas (LNG). Earlier, in May 2016, AIDAprima and AIDAsol had become the first two ships in the AIDA fleet to be simultaneously powered by LNG. In August 2019, AIDA signed an agreement with Corvus Energy to install battery storage systems for the electrification of their ships. In October 2019, AIDA announced that it would test a new fuel-cell technology for large-scale cruise ships aboard the AIDAnova as early as 2021.

From Wikipedia’s article on AIDA Cruises, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Products and brands

  • cruise

Listed on Wikidata.1

Future fleet

In April 2025, the order of two ships at Fincantieri was announced. The delivery is planned for early 2030 and late 2031. The contract was concluded on 7 April 2025.

From Wikipedia’s article on AIDA Cruises, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4

Subsidiaries and ownership

Parent company

Also owns

  • AIDAcara
  • AIDAluna

From Wikidata.1

Timeline

  1. 1960Founded Founded1

Sources

The numbers on this page point here. Each one links to the record it came from.

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5