Three P&O cruise liners will visit Sydney as part of their world cruises during the same week in February 2013. One of them will be the cruise line’s largest ship, the Azura.

The cruise ship, with a maximum passenger capacity of 3,100, will dock at Fremantle on the 17th February 2013 before sailing for Adelaide. From there it is on to Melbourne and Sydney before it finally docks at Brisbane and Cairns.

The ship will spend a night in Sydney on the 25th February, only three days after a visit by the same cruise line’s Aurora. Another P&O ship, the Arcadia, will arrive on the 27th February 2013.

Collectively the three ships will visit 11 ports of call in Australia.

Carol Marlow, the Managing Director of P&O Cruises, said at the launch of the company’s 2013 world cruise programme that its aim was to double the number of Australians cruising on board its ships between 2011 and 2013.

“Capacity in 2013 has increased by 23% but we think the Australian growth will be more than that” she said at the press conference on Tuesday.

Australians currently account for only 10% of P&O passengers, but Ms Marlow expressed her confidence that this percentage will soon grow significantly. In fact she made the prediction that by 2013, half of the passengers on board the Azura would be Australians.

A visit by P&O’s Oriana last November proved less popular than the company hoped. It was much more successful with its February and March cruise offers.