Star Purchases Two Airtours Vessels

Star Cruises Plc has bought the remaining two ships of Airtours' Sun Cruises unit as well as the rights to the Sun Cruises name. The Sun Viva I and Sun Viva II will be renamed MegaStar Sagittarius and MegaStar Capricorn respectively, Star said. It gave no financial details. Star said that following its joint acquisition with U.S. cruise firm Carnival Corp last month of Norway's NCL Holdings for $1.1 billion, it has a fleet of 18 ships and over 21,000 lower berths. By 2004, with the five ships currently on order, Star/NCL will have 23 vessels with about 34,000 lower berths.