Costa Europa's last two scheduled sailings for Costa Cruises have been cancelled.
The decision has been made to enable repairs to be carried out on the vessel following a collision with a pier in Sharm El Sheikh which left three crew members dead.
Thomson Cruises is to charter the 1,488-passenger ship from next month.
Costa reportedly said it is confident that repairs will be completed within 30 days.
There was damage to a watertight compartment of the ship’s hull. Some crew cabins and parts of the engine room were also damaged.
Repairs will be completed over the next month in Palermo.
As a result, the line has cancelled March 4 and March 22 departures and is working to re-book passengers on other sailings or provide full refunds.
The accident happened on Friday as the ship was docking at the Red Sea port in strong winds (see previous TravelMole story).
Click here to view original article by Phil Davies, Wednesday 3rd March, 2010
