The Fantastica will be the twelfth ship in the fleet when it is launched in May 2012. Inspired by the Fantasia, which left the shipyard at the end of 2008, and the Splendida, which was delivered in summer 2009, this ship will have 1,750 cabins, including the new MSC Yacht Club suites. Although construction was launched early by STX France, it took several months to complete the financing, worth around €560 million, due to the economic crisis.
However, the support of the French Ministry of the Economy (the French state is a 33% shareholder in the shipyards) and the intervention of Coface, the French export credit agency, finally got the deal through with the banks. With its order book empty, STX France is now back in the black, especially as the former Chantiers de l'Atlantique has signed a letter of intent with the Libyan shipping group GNMTC to build a ship similar in size to the Fantastica, for delivery in December 2012. The management of this other giant of the seas will be entrusted to MSC, which hopes to carry more than 1.4 million passengers a year.
