Cypriot cruise operator Louis Group has made a €856,000 ($997,000) profit on the sale of its oldest vessel.
While the company said in a statement to the Cyprus Stock Exchange that the 15,800-gt, 850-passenger Aegean Queen (built 1967) had been sold to a foreign buyer, TradeWinds understands from both cruise industry and shiprecycling sources that the cruiseship has gone to cash buyers and will likely end up on a beach in Alang.
This week, the ship — under the shortened name of Aegean — was heading to the Red Sea, with its automatic identification system (AIS) broadcasting its destination as Dubai.
This is common for ships heading for recycling in the subcontinent while the cash buyer owners determine whether it will be sold to shiprecyclers in either Bangladesh, India or Pakistan.
The Aegean Queen was one of several ships that were not transferred across to Louis’ Greek cruise subsidiary Celestyal Cruises when it was established in 2014, and has mostly been used in the charter markets over the past few years.
It last operated under charter to Turkish tour operator Etstur in 2017, but was replaced by a newer ship this year.
Originally built under the name of Starward for shipowner Knut Klosters’ Norwegian Caribbean Line, the vessel has been with Louis since 2006 after passing through the hands of several other cruise operators. It is one of only a handful of first-generation cruiseships from the 1960s that are still in existence.
