Costa Cruises, the Italian cruise line owned by the Carnival Corporation, has announced some important changes to its senior leadership team.

The changes are a result of Carnival’s efforts to get its cruise lines back on their feet, and mobilise the global organisation ahead of the resumption of cruising.

Michael Thamm, group CEO of Costa Group & Carnival Asia, has been given the added role of president, with Mario Zanetti now chief commercial officer of Costa Cruises.

Former president Neil Palomba will now take the role of executive vice president and chief operations officer for Carnival Cruise Line.

According to the corporation, Palomba will continue to oversee the resumption go Costa operations in the next weeks to “ensure a smooth transition while progressively taking over new responsibilities”.

Commenting on the reshuffle, Thamm said: “The current pause in our cruise operations has given us the opportunity of redesigning every aspect of our business, from our commercial strategy, to product design including our organisational structure to make sure we come back stronger when we resume operations.“

“We all thank Neil for his outstanding contribution to the success of Costa Cruises in the past six years and wish him the best for his new role within the Carnival family of brands.”

In his new role based in Genoa, Zanetti will be responsible for the overall commercial operation of the company, and report into the CEO, Thamm. He will still keep his role as president of Costa Group Asia.

In his 20 years with Costa Cruises, Zanetti has held key leadership positions and strengthened the brand’s presence in Asia, along with executing the renewal of the fleet.

Costa Cruises suspended its operations back in May, in response to the coronavirus pandemic. As of today (Thursday 9 July), the line will resume sailings on 15 August 2020, and has cancelled its cruises to Northern Europe.