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AIDAprima

AIDA Cruises · Cruise · In service · built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries

AIDAprima entered service in 2016 at around 124,500 GT after repeated delays that pushed Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to enormous losses.

Length overall300 m
Beam37.6 m
Gross tonnage124,500 GT
Passengers3,400
Speed21.5 kn
Delivered2016
Our numbers

Derived metrics

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

Passengers per metre#55 of 116
11.3 pax/m passengers (double occupancy) ÷ length overall
Length-to-beam ratio#78 of 142
7.98 length overall ÷ beam
Sense of scale

How big is it, really?

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

AIDAprima300 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 held the longest-airliner record for over a decade, until Boeing's 777-9 took it by about 19 inches (76.72 m) — our sibling site aircraft.fyi measures everything that flies the same way.

One AIDAprima = 1.11 Titanics · 2.9 football pitches · 12 blue whales · 3.9 Boeing 747-8s laid end to end.

Plan a sailing on AIDAprima

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Specification

The numbers

Length overall≈300 m
Beam≈37.6 m
Gross tonnage≈124,500 GT
Passengers≈3,400 (max)
Crew≈900
Decks18
Speed≈21.5 kn
Entered serviceMay 2016

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Put the AIDAprima next to something

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

The story

What makes it different

AIDAprima is a cautionary tale as much as a ship. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries took the order as a route into European cruise shipbuilding, hit repeated delays and redesigns, and absorbed losses running into the billions before delivering her roughly a year late.

The consequence reshaped the industry. Mitsubishi withdrew from large cruise ship construction, and the segment consolidated around Fincantieri, Meyer Werft, Meyer Turku and Chantiers de l'Atlantique — which is why almost every ship on this site comes from one of four yards.

She is a good ship for her market regardless: a covered, glass-roofed central pool and promenade area designed around German departure ports, where an open lido deck is unusable for much of the season.

The class

The AIDAprima line

Hyperion class
Lead ship of two. Delivery slipped by roughly a year against the original schedule.
The Nagasaki order
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries won the two-ship contract to enter the European cruise market, absorbed very large losses on it, and subsequently exited large cruise ship construction.
Operators

Who operates the AIDAprima

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

AIDAIDA CruisesBaltic and northern European itineraries from Kiel and Hamburg.1
Quick answers

AIDAprima, asked and answered

How long is the AIDAprima?
300 m (984 ft) length overall — the #97 longest of the 142 ships on ships.fyi, and 2.9 football pitches end to end.
How big is the AIDAprima compared to the Titanic?
The AIDAprima is 1.11× the Titanic's length — 300 m against her 269.06 m. By volume the gap is starker still: 124,500 GT against Titanic's 46,328 GRT — roughly 2.7 times the tonnage, measured across two different rule eras.
Who operates the AIDAprima?
AIDA Cruises. Current status: in service.
Does the AIDAprima fit through the Panama Canal?
Not the original locks — but yes through the 2016 Neopanamax locks: at 300 m by 37.6 m on a 8 m draft she clears the 366 × 51.25 × 15.2 m expanded gauge.