Fred Olsen signals higher prices for 2019

Fred Olsen is aiming to further increase its revenue by pushing up the headline price of its cruises and reducing the level of discounting.

Chairman Fred Olsen Junior said he was confident passengers would pay more due to recent improvements, including the multi-million pound refits of all four ocean-going cruise ships and onboard innovations, such as the re-introduction of glass-bottom rigid inflatable tour boats (RIBS).

From March, the cruise line will have two 12-seater RIBS on both Black Watch and Boudicca to take passengers on excursions to more remote locations. By 2019, the cruise line is aiming to have four RIBS on every one of its four ships. The excursions, which are an optional extra, can be pre-booked or booked onboard.

Fred Olsen said that as a result of higher prices, its loyal clients who took two to three cruises a year might take one cruise less or book a cheaper cabin, but he said he was expecting the cruise line’s revenue to increase overall.

"We see that we can get more for our cabins because we are giving our customers more," he added.

Managing director Mike Rodwell said Fred Olsen’s average yields had risen 10% in the past two years since it had revamped its itineraries. The  2019/20 season, on sale from Monday, March 12, has been further tweaked and includes an expanded programme of long-haul fly-cruises.

Also, for the entire 2019 season, every one of Braemar’s ports of call will be within walking distance of the downtown areas, so passengers won’t need to take any shuttle transfers.

The cruise line is looking to acquire another 600-passenger explorer ship, but Olsen Junior said it was difficult to find a shipbuilder to manufacture such a small vessel as most yards were building much larger ships.

"We can continue as we are, our ships are up to the latest legislation, they work well, but we need to upgrade the fleet," he said.  "We are focused on it, last year we tried to buy a second-hand ship but they were all too large, so we will have to go to the next level, it will have to be a new ship."

He said Fred Olsen was undecided at this stage whether to also expand its fledgling river cruise programe, which was launched last year with one chartered ship, Brabant. While he said the company was ‘comfortable’ with the inaugural season, he admitted fewer of Fred Olsen’s customers than expected had made the switch to river cruising.

"We are trying to learn to see what we want to do about it," he said, "maybe we will have a couple of ships in a couple of years, but that is not where we want to put our efforts."