Carnival Corp has announced the deployment of two Costa ships into the North American cruise market under a new sub brand Costa by Carnival.

The transfers highlight how Costa, which hitched much of its pre-pandemic growth plans on the Asia market, especially China, has perhaps become Carnival Corp’s problem child.

The 135,200-gt Costa Venezia (built 2019) will be commercially operated by Carnival Cruise Line (CCL) from the spring of 2023, while the identical Costa Firenze (built 2020) will follow in 2024.