An outlook for
marine crew travel
Winter 2020/21
Delivering what really matters
The current climate - learning from experience
Commercial shipping and related marine crew travel has always been one of the most resilient travel sectors to geopolitical, economic and, most recently, pandemic health crises.
Thanks to its alignment with seaborne supply chains and global trade, it has maintained a constant growth rate despite international conflicts, natural disasters, fluctuating oil prices and global economic downturns and on average 100,000 seafarers need to be changed on a monthly basis in order to keep global supply lines undisrupted.
This need has not been reduced by the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent travel restrictions imposed by countries, ports and airlines since March.
At the end of September it was estimated that 400,000 seafarers are still stranded on board ships
many with expired contracts needing to be relieved by a fellow seafarers to replace them.
Despite the situation having improved since March, April and May, when around only 10-15% of 2019 scheduled flights flew, we do not expect the regulations to be relaxed or to stabilise at a global level anytime before mid-2021. With 80% of all countries still considered to be high risk areas by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention in September 2020, governments continue to impose restrictions on an ongoing basis and limit or prevent ships from conducting crew changes
One of the challenges shipping and ship management companies have been facing since March and April 2020 is that crew changes are becoming more complicated and time consuming with so many different restrictions and protocols in place.
This, in addition to airline route limitations and therefore scarce availability on some of the most needed routes for seafarers, has made crew changes lengthier and more expensive. This is further exacerbated if we also add quarantine measures, increased airfares and other additional costs, such as tests, into the mix.
