Size doesn’t matter

The cruiseship industry has defended the safety record of huge vessels in the wake of the Costa Concordia tragedy.

Maritime experts speaking at a London media briefing on Thursday afternoon said big ships are just as safe as smaller ones.

Tom Allen, an independent consultant to the industry on ship design, told reporters: “I don’t think it makes any difference what the size of the ship is."

Speaking at an event organised by industry body Cruise Lines International (CLIA), the European Cruise Council (ECC) and the Passenger Shipping Association (PSA), he added: “Stability standards are no different."

He said bigger vessels even had certain advantages when it came to safety.

“They give a better platform for launching evacuations and more flexibility in sub-division of a ship.

“The cruise industry has been very good at taking forward new knowledge in this area and bigger vessels allow you to take advantage of this.”

UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency chief Alan Massey echoed this.

He said: “It’s quite easy to jump to conclusions that bigger ships are riskier than smaller ones.

But safety standards have kept pace with the size of vessels and the numbers of passengers and crew.”

The IMO said this week that passenger vessels built after new rules came into force in July 2010 would be more robust than those built before, like Costa Concordia (built 2006).

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