The new UK boss of Princess Cruises has hinted the line could soon boost ex-UK capacity in the wake of doubling British passenger numbers.
In her first trade press interview, Eithne Williamson, who took up the vice-president of UK and Europe role in late June, reported “sustained demand” in the UK market for Princess sailings.
She said that ex-UK voyages had become “really important” due to issues experienced by travellers flying from some airports this summer.
Sky Princess, Enchanted Princess, Emerald Princess and Island Princess have all offered sailings from Southampton this summer.
Asked about the line’s future UK deployment plans, Williamson said: “At the moment Sky [Princess] will definitely be ex-UK, but we’ll also have a British Isles ship and we’re having conversations looking at how we might utilise the ships that are in the UK waters even more.
“Watch this space, I think, we may have yet more opportunities arising.”
John Padgett, Princess Cruises president, previously pledged to “always support” the UK with the “best” ships in the fleet and revealed around 40% of the line’s passengers last year were from the UK.
Next year, the 3,560-passenger Regal Princess will operate round-Britain cruises, replacing the smaller 3,080-passenger Emerald Princess.
“That means that actually we’ve already got increased capacity within UK waters for next year,” Williamson added.
She went on to say that Princess had this year delivered “over double” the number of guests it had in 2019 on ex-UK voyages and fly-cruises in the Mediterranean on Regal Princess.
On Enchanted Princess, which joined the fleet in November 2021, Williamson added that recent sailings had been sold out. “That wasn’t expected,” she said.
“Princess as a company is getting those UK guests and we’re getting demand from the UK guests,” she added.
Williamson also pointed out how agent demand had encouraged Princess to offer a new round-trip sailing from Vancouver next year.
“This is what our agent partners have been saying they want,” she said, adding: “So opening up not just the UK, but Princess’s brand around the globe. That’s what’s going to be key.”