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Davina’s Diary……Staff Services Director Davina McKay Looks Ahead to a Busy Cruise Ship Season

As the temperatures rise and the days get longer, Spring marks the start of what promises to be a bumper cruise season for ports like Southampton and Portsmouth.

Cruising from the UK is big business with figures released by Cruise Britain showing that more passengers than ever before visited Great Britain through the country’s  57 cruise ports in 2014.  53 different cruise lines visited UK ports in 2014 from Kirkwall, Orkney in the far north to the Channel Islands and the Isles of Scilly off the south coast.

Britannia and Anthem Arrive

Although 2014 saw a small drop in the number of passengers beginning their cruise at British ports, the introduction of P&O Cruises’ Britannia and Royal Caribbean’s Anthem of the Seas is anticipated to redress the balance – and both will be using Southampton as their home port this year.

Pathfinder, through our sister companies SCH and Cruise and Passenger Services (CPS), will be playing a key role in the massive turnaround operations that will see thousands of passengers disembarked and embarked on each call by these new giants.

With space for 4,180 passengers, the Anthem of the Seas will be the biggest passenger ship calling in Southampton and will demand a major operation to handle passenger baggage and  stores. In addition, SCH has secured a two year agreement with Saga Cruises to handle all the line’s ship calls in Southampton, while our Portsmouth operation, run by Southern Maritime Services, will handle some 40 cruise calls at Portsmouth International Port (PIP) this year as part of a new, exclusive three-year agreement to handle all cruise ship callers in the port.

Baggage Handlers and other Staff Required

Those latest additions to our business alone ensure that we will require significant numbers of ship handing staff during the busy summer months and well into the Autumn – a great opportunity for those looking for flexible work.

In particular, we’re looking for baggage handlers, car drivers, meet and greet staff and fork lift drivers who will provide valuable passenger operations support.

Cruise shipping is big business in Southampton with around 450 ship calls a year. Through our sister companies, Pathfinder is instrumental in providing people for the majority of those ships and ,with one of the busiest UK cruise ship seasons on record approaching, the opportunities are  growing for reliable agency staff seeking regular, rewarding work. We’d welcome your call today.

Looking for a career in the maritime industry?

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If you would like to work with the cruise team as a Baggage Handler please register your interest here!

Please note, you will be contacted by member of the team in April.