It aims to book air travel where the journey is less burdensome for crew and tickets cheaper. Improved planning, with fewer rebookings and finding alternative ports to disembark crew, are just some of the measures involved.
‘The windows of opportunity for a crew change have become narrower and narrower, ships staying in ports fewer than eight hours,’ said Nikos Gazelidis, ATPI Marine Travel’s CCO and MD. ‘It has become a logistical exercise more than just issuing another ticket. It's about coordination.’
So far, the approach has been positive, Gazelidis revealing one operator saved half a million euros in a single quarter.
Breaking with convention
ATPI – which handles more than a million crew changes – recorded a 27% average for cancellations or rebookings after the airfare was issued pre-pandemic, with a two- to three-day window between issuing the tickets and the date of travel. Since COVID-19, that figure has jumped to 37%. The volume, combined with the last-minute rebooking, means ‘it's going to be more expensive. It's going to be more time consuming for our people in the office,’ Gazelidis stated.
‘Every crew operator in the shipping company is assigned to between 10 and 15 vessels: for this 37%, the work is doubled, tickets rebooked and sometimes rebooked again.
‘Can this percentage be due to unforeseen circumstances – bad weather or illness that prevents travel? It can’t be.
‘In the end, the seafarer is affected. At the same time, when we have re-booked and re-booked and re-booked, the price of the ticket is much more expensive. And it's likely that we're going to cut corners. The seafarer will have the cheapest fare with the longest route, so by the time he reaches the vessel, he's dead tired.’
He continued, ‘The life of our seafarers and the experience of the seafarers is not only on board the vessel, it starts from home until they go aboard the ship. And if the first experience is bad, then psychologically, they feel negative about the company they’re working for.’
Significant savings
Trials with individual clients where ATPI is embedded in the planning and execution of the crew change process has yielded positive results. Last year, one cruise line asked ATPI to revisit bookings previously made to see if savings were possible, as it sought to improve its figures. ‘When we did this, we realised we could do something better. All of the previous ports selected were turnaround ports, which tend to carry cruise ships passengers, and where airline seats are limited,’ explained Gazelidis.
ATPI established that 70% could disembark the ship at an alternative port without affecting the guest experience and proceeded to make adjustments, bringing in 500,000 euros in savings for a single quarter alone. Plus, ‘the saving was only for 15% of the total crew changes. It wasn't for everyone as we couldn't find better in such short notice.’
The company now plans on rolling out the 24/7 service to the wider cruise market. Gazelidis remarked, ‘We know information that the crewing department doesn't know. At the same time, crewing departments are a bit fragmented, communication is fragmented, everything is unilateral, it seems. We're not part of an ecosystem that can work effectively, together, and exchange information.
‘In essence, we offer the possibility for us to be the control tower and immediately disseminate information that comes from us in the first place, as we know the seafarer’s date/time of arrival at the crew change location.’
He concluded, ‘The captain can call us in the middle of the night and say the time of arrival has changed. Immediately we make the changes, we don't lose time. We might charge a fee for this, but the money saved is enormous.’
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