By
Rebecca Gibson |
Carnival Maritime’s Fleet Operation Center (FOC) is to extend its monitoring services to cover 11 cruise ships in Carnival Corporation’s P&O Cruises, Fathom and Cunard Line brands.
Based in Hamburg, Germany, Carnival Maritime was founded in 2015 to serve as the marine service unit for the Costa Group. Until September 2016, the organisation provided real-time digital support, surveillance and route planning services to cover all of the technical, nautical and safety aspects related to the 26 vessels in the Costa Cruises, Costa Asia and AIDA Cruises brands.
The FOC, which operates 24 hours a day and is staffed by 14 officers on a rotational basis, now monitors and supports 37 ships for Carnival Corporation. If safety concerns arise onboard one of the 37 cruise vessels, the on-duty nautical officers can provide risk and crisis management, as well as route planning support.
It is hoped that by using real-time technical surveillance and data analysis, the brands could share best practices, leverage economies of scale to reduce costs, and develop innovative environmental and efficiency projects.
“With additional manpower and expertise, we will improve our speed to achieve our goal of service improvements towards brands and fleet as well as optimisation of our working procedures,” said Lars Ljoen, managing director of Carnival Maritime.
Carnival Maritime has also introduced a new Nautical Department, which will be headed by Keith Dowds, vice president of nautical operations. The department will provide even better tactical support and professional guidance in relation to the nautical operations of each fleet.
“The main premise behind the new Nautical Operations department is that we are continuously seeking to improve and share information and best practices across the fleets,” said Dowds. “We provide extra nautical expertise also to the brands. This will give us enormous benefits, for example when it comes to the deployment of the ships, their energy efficiency and port costs.”