Cruise & Maritime Voyages (CMV), the UK based destinational operator that has foothold in many source markets, has delivered on its previously announced expansion plans as it on 28 November unveiled the acquisition of two ships from P&O Cruises Australia.
CMV intends to keep all of its existing six vessels, when the present day Pacific Dawn will join its UK fleet and Pacific Aria its TransOcean Kreuzfahrten unit in Germany in the summer of 2021.
Degree of homogeneity emerges
Pacific Dawn was built as the final unit in a series of three ships delivered to Princess Cruises in 1989-91 and it is a near sister of Columbus, built as Star Princess as the first unit of the class in 1989.
Pacific Aria is a Statendam class ship built for Holland America Line in 1994 and a sister ship of Vasco da Gama, which CMV acquired from P&O Cruises Australia, and introduced on the German and Australian markets earlier this year.
This is interesting as CMV has been able to build a certain degree of homogeneity through acquisitions of second hand tonnage. If we look several to the past, this was often very difficult to achieve due to the fact that long series of ships were not really built before the 1990s. Now ships of this vintage are available on the second hand market.
CMV’s expansion has not meant just more ships: the 1987 built 21,000 gross ton Astor will be introduced on the French market under a French brand in two years’ time. The company already has foothold in the US, Australia and Mexico as well, although the UK and Germany generate 85% of its passengers, according to company officials.
As orderbooks for cruise ship newbuildings are at a record high level, with more than 100 ships contracted, good quality tonnage built in the 1990s and son probably also early in the new decade can be expected to become available on the second hand market.
Little activity on second hand market
Against this background, it is perhaps surprising that only Marella Cruises, the UK focused line in the TUI AG group, has actively purchased second hand ships in recent years.
It has added two former Vision class ships of Royal Caribbean International and two Century class vessels built for Celebrity Cruises, all of mid-1990s vintage, since it started its fleet renewal in 2016.
It has stated that the remaining two, pre-1990 ships should also be replaced by newer and probably larger tonnage in the next few years.
Although Marella Cruises has increased its capacity by introducing larger vessels, the number of ships in its fleet has not grown as the new, owned acquisition have replaced older, chartered in tonnage.
The cruise market is quite consolidated and although several good quality vessels could available for purchase, it is difficult to launch a new cruise brand.
It would have to differ from existing offerings in a meaningful way, yet it should not be too narrow in its appeal to be commercially viable.