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AIDA Nova

AIDA Cruises · Cruise · In service · built by Meyer Werft

AIDA Nova was the first cruise ship ever to run on liquefied natural gas — the 2018 proof-of-concept that Icon, Legend, World Europa and the rest all built on.

Length overall337 m

Beam42 m

Gross tonnage183,858 GT

Passengers5,200

Speed21 kn

Delivered2018

Our numbers

Derived metrics

Computed by ships.fyi from the core specification — see how we calculate these.

Passengers per metre#5 of 19

15.4 pax/m passengers (double occupancy) ÷ length overall

Length-to-beam ratio#8 of 45

8.02 length overall ÷ beam

Sense of scale

How big is it, really?

The AIDA Nova's length overall, against things you already know the size of.

AIDA Nova337 m

Eiffel Tower (height)330 m

Titanic269.06 m

Football pitch105 m

Boeing 747-876.3 m

Blue whale25 m

You (probably)1.75 m

The 747-8 bar is the longest airliner ever built — our sibling site aircraft.fyi measures everything that flies the same way.

One AIDA Nova = 1.25 Titanics · 3.2 football pitches · 13 blue whales · 4.4 Boeing 747-8s laid end to end.

#37 of 45 by length → #22 by gross tonnage → #11 by passengers → Run the Canal-Fit Checker → Sailing on her? Get cruise-ready →

Plan a sailing on AIDA Nova

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Specification

The numbers

Length overall	≈337 m
Beam	42 m
Gross tonnage	183,858 GT
Passengers	≈5,200 (double) / ≈6,600 (max)
Crew	≈1,500
Propulsion	LNG dual-fuel — world first for a cruise ship
Delivered	December 2018
Maiden voyage	December 2018, Canary Islands

Compare it

Put the AIDA Nova next to something

vs Costa Smeralda →vs MSC World Europa →

vs Costa Smeralda vs Carnival Jubilee vs MSC World Europa Compare with anything →

Last verified: 2026-07-15 · Spot an error? business@luck.fyi

The story

What makes it different

Every LNG-powered giant on this site — Icon, Star, Legend, World Europa, Jubilee, Wish — is following a trail AIDA Nova cut in December 2018, when she became the first cruise ship in history able to run entirely on liquefied natural gas, in port and at sea.

The engineering risk was real: cryogenic tanks at minus 162 degrees Celsius inside a passenger ship, a new bunkering infrastructure that barely existed, and dual-fuel engines at a scale the industry had not certified before. Carnival Corporation absorbed that risk once and then rolled the same platform out across three brands.

Built for the German market, AIDA Nova is easy to spot: the kissing lips and eyes painted across her bow are AIDA's trademark, wrapped around what was, at delivery, one of the ten largest cruise ships in the world.

The class

The AIDA Nova line

Excellence class

Lead of Carnival Corporation's LNG platform, later adapted as Costa Smeralda/Toscana and Carnival's Excel class. AIDA Cosma joined the AIDA fleet in 2022.

Operators

Who operates the AIDA Nova

All 1 operator of record, verified 2026-07-15. Figures marked ≈ are approximate.

AIDAIDA CruisesGerman-market itineraries — Canaries in winter, Northern Europe and the Mediterranean in summer.1✓→

Quick answers

AIDA Nova, asked and answered

How long is the AIDA Nova?

337 m (1,106 ft) length overall — the #37 longest of the 45 ships on ships.fyi, and 3.2 football pitches end to end.

How big is the AIDA Nova compared to the Titanic?

The AIDA Nova is 1.25× the Titanic's length — 337 m against her 269.06 m. By volume the gap is starker still: 183,858 GT against Titanic's 46,328 GRT — roughly 4.0 times the tonnage, measured across two different rule eras.

Who operates the AIDA Nova?

AIDA Cruises. Current status: in service.

Does the AIDA Nova fit through the Panama Canal?

Not the original locks — but yes through the 2016 Neopanamax locks: at 337 m by 42 m on a 8.7 m draft she clears the 366 × 51.25 × 15.2 m expanded gauge.

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