Turku 1000
Stop 49 of 50
2020s

Building the world’s biggest cruise ships

In the 2020s the shipyard at Perno builds the largest cruise ships in the world. Icon of the Seas, finished in 2023, is 365 metres long and carries up to 7,600 passengers. Thousands of people in Turku and around Finland work on ships like her.

The 2000s and today · Republic
The big story

Building the world’s biggest cruise ships

Ships have been built in Turku for centuries, and the yard survived the crash of 1989 (stop 45). Today it is Meyer Turku, and it builds some of the largest cruise ships in the world.

A long line of owners

  • Since 1737. Industrial shipbuilding in Turku began in 1737. Building of the present yard at Perno started in 1975 Well documented.
  • Many owners. After Wärtsilä Marine (1987) and its bankruptcy came Masa-Yards (1989), the Norwegian Kværner (1990), Aker Yards (2004) and the Korean STX (2008) Well documented.
  • Meyer Turku. In 2014 the German family company Meyer Werft bought the yard together with the Finnish state and renamed it Meyer Turku. Later Meyer bought the state’s share as well Well documented.
  • The yard. It covers 144 hectares. Its dry dock is 365 metres long, 80 metres wide and 10 metres deep, and its gantry crane can lift 1,200 tonnes Well documented.

Giants of the sea

  • Oasis and Allure. Oasis of the Seas (2009) and Allure of the Seas (2010), the largest cruise ships of their time, were built in Turku Well documented.
  • Icon of the Seas. Icon’s keel was laid on 4 April 2022, she was floated on 9 December 2022 and handed over to Royal Caribbean on 27 November 2023. Her first cruise left Miami on 27 January 2024 Well documented.
  • How big? Icon is 364.75 metres long, has 20 decks and a gross tonnage of 248,663. She carries 5,610 passengers in double cabins, up to 7,600 at most, and a crew of 2,350. She cost about 1.86 billion euros Well documented.
  • The biggest. Icon and her Turku-built sisters Star of the Seas (2025) and Legend of the Seas share the title of the largest cruise ship in the world Well documented.

Other ships

  • For many companies. Since 2014 the yard has built six Mein Schiff cruise ships for TUI Cruises, the ferry Megastar for Tallink (2017), Costa Smeralda (2019), Mardi Gras (2020), Costa Toscana (2021) and Carnival Celebration (2022) Well documented.
  • Gas power. Icon can run on liquefied natural gas, using six multi-fuel engines made by the Finnish company Wärtsilä Well documented.
  • Orders. Hero of the Seas is due in 2027 and another Icon-class ship in 2028. The yard is also building two patrol ships for the Finnish Border Guard, and more Royal Caribbean ships are planned up to 2036 Well documented.

Jobs

  • At the yard. Meyer Turku has about 2,400 employees of its own, about 30% more than in 2021 Well documented.
  • Around Finland. Counting suppliers, the yard creates more than 10,000 jobs in Finland, up from 8,583 in 2021 Well documented.
  • Suppliers. In 2025 more than 1,100 companies, 755 of them Finnish, in 103 Finnish municipalities and 32 countries delivered goods and work worth about 1.45 billion euros. About 70% of the deliveries came from Finland Well documented.
How do we know?

Ships are well documented: their building dates, sizes and owners are public. The job and supplier figures come from a study by the University of Turku, ordered by the city and the yard and reported by the City of Turku. One source for Oasis and Allure is a copy of an encyclopedia article, but the facts are widely known.

dry dock 365 mto sea →Miami →
How Icon of the Seas was built step by step, the yard’s owners since 1987, and the jobs that depend on it.The ship is a simple drawing, not to scale. In the jobs grid one dot is 100 jobs.
Why it matters

The shipyard is Turku’s biggest industrial employer, and its work spreads to companies all over Finland. The same skills that survived the crash of 1989 now build the largest passenger ships ever made. But the yard depends on a few big customers and on people wanting to go on cruises.

On the lighter side

Pandemic year in a student city

Turku is a big student city, with about 40,000 students in higher education. In March 2020 the coronavirus pandemic emptied its lecture halls almost overnight. For many students the next year and a half was spent in front of a laptop.

Overnight online

  • Exceptional circumstances. On 16 March 2020 the Government, together with the President, declared that Finland was in exceptional circumstances because of the coronavirus Well documented.
  • Doors closed. From 18 March university buildings were closed and teaching in classrooms was cancelled. The University of Turku moved its teaching and supervision online Well documented.
  • A remote autumn. The university decided to run the autumn term of 2020 mainly as remote teaching, but new students could start on campus in August Likely.

Life in student housing

  • A cluster. In March 2021 more than 70 infections were found among international exchange students in Turku. The virus spread in shared student housing, such as the Student Village, Retrodom in Luolavuori and Krööpilänkatu in Varissuo Well documented.
  • The testing bus. A free testing bus came to the Student Village on 20–21 March 2021, together with the Finnish Red Cross Well documented.

Cancelled summers

  • No festivals. In summer 2020 large public events were banned in Finland, and festivals such as Ruisrock (stop 43) were cancelled Likely.
  • What we do not know. We did not find sources on how student traditions in Turku, such as May Day, were celebrated during the pandemic Well documented.
Lecture hall!LaptopTESTING
From a full lecture hall to a laptop screen, and the testing bus of March 2021.A simple drawing of how teaching changed, not real numbers of students.
How do we know?

The University of Turku published news about every change, and we used those announcements. Some of them, such as the plans for autumn 2020, we found only as headlines, so we mark them as likely. The festival ban is general knowledge that we did not check against a source.

Why it matters

The pandemic showed how much of student life happens face to face: in lectures, corridors, cafés and student parties. Many of today’s students in Turku started or finished their studies on screen, and online teaching that was new in 2020 is now an ordinary part of university life.

Sources and further reading

  1. Meyer Turku — shipbuilding since 1737, the chain of owners, the dry dock and the ships built since 2014.
  2. Icon of the Seas — building dates, size, passengers, cost and engines.
  3. Oasis-class cruise ship — Oasis of the Seas (2009) and Allure of the Seas (2010) built in Turku.
  4. City of Turku: study on Meyer Turku’s effect on jobs and suppliers in Finland (2026).
  5. University of Turku: Finland in exceptional circumstances due to coronavirus situation (March 2020).
  6. University of Turku: over 70 coronavirus infections detected among international students (March 2021).
  7. Turku — about 40,000 students in higher education.

Spotted a mistake? Know more?

This site is open and free. Corrections and additions are welcome — every page lists its sources so you can check them.