The brand new catamaran MV Saint John Paul II has completed its delivery trip from Tasmania to Malta to join Virtu's fleet for crossings between Malta and Sicily.

It is second largest vessel of the sort in the world and the biggest in the Mediterranean.

People can visit the vessel, which has been selected for the prestigious notation Significant Ship 2018 by the Royal Institute of Naval Architects, on March 10 at the Virtu Ferries Terminal.

The vessel has capacity for 900 passengers in five lounges, and a garage that takes 167 cars or 23 trailers.

The St John Paul II making its entrance in Grand Harbour. Photo: Daniel Cilia

The arrival of the new catamaran comes 89 years, almost to the day, since the first ever purpose-built vessel for the Malta-Sicily route, the MV Knight of Malta, entered service.  

The Knight of Malta was launched by Lady Strickland at the Swan Hunter Yard in the UK and it entered service on February 21, 1930.

The ship, owned by the Cassar Torregiani family, used to berth at Lascaris Wharf. It could carry some 100 passengers in three classes. It was sunk by aerial bombing in March 1941.

Prior to the arrival of the Knight of Malta, services between Malta and Sicily were operated by adapted vessels, such as the Ljubljana, owned by the Gasan family before they obtained the Ford car dealership in 1928.

The MV Saint John Paul II was delivered to ship-owners Virtu Ferries on February 6.

The vessel’s maiden voyage saw her crossing the Indian Ocean, calling at the ports of Fremantle in Western Australia and Colombo in Sri Lanka for refuelling, before passing Somalia, at the Eastern tip of Africa, to transit the length of the Red Sea.

The last refuelling port she called at was that of Jeddah before entering the Mediterranean via the Suez Canal. The last leg of the journey - from Port Said to Valletta – was covered in around 30 hours.

Saint John Paul II, is the fifth newly-built, and 11th high-speed vessel delivered to Virtu since the commencement of the high-speed ferry service between Malta and Sicily in 1988.