At a special event last week, Viking’s chairman Torstein Hagen revealed the company had plans to build another 24 river cruise ships.

The ships will be in addition to the 65 river vessels Viking already has in option and Mr Hagen did not reveal a schedule of when the ships will be delivered.

But the line will be launching a new river ship in Egypt this year as well as seven more vessels in Europe in 2019.

Viking will be revealing six of its Longship class vessels on the Rhine, Maine and Danube rivers which include the Viking Einar, Sigrun, Tir, Ullur and Vali. It will also launch a smaller Longship-style vessel called the Viking Helgrim on Portugal’s Douro River.

And later this year, the Viking Ra will be sailing down the Nile.

The announcement comes after Viking had slowed down its river ship building operations over the last few years to ramp up the building of its ocean vessels.