CUNARD has confirmed that its gigantic new ocean liner will be named Queen Mary 2 after resolving legal issues surrounding the name.
The company has referred to the ship as the Queen Mary Project until now because there was another ship with a similar name in the US.
Regional vice-president of sales and marketing for Europe Hans Rood claimed preparations were already underway for the arrival of the new ship in 2003.
“We want to make QM2 more famous than Queen Elizabeth 2 before she is even launched,” he said.
QE2 and Caronia are testing itineraries that may be carried out by QM2 at a later stage, including the Southampton to Cape Town route and Transatlantic services between New York and Boston in the US and Southampton, Amsterdam and Cherbourg in Europe.
Meanwhile, Cunard’s Southampton office has expanded in size to accommodate more staff in the run-up to the launch of QM2.
At present, the company has a 120-strong team. A further 60 people are being recruited.
n Cunard plans to launch its own, dedicated charter flights to European destinations to service Caronia’s Mediterranean programme this summer.