msc
Photo: © Sheila Fitzgerald

The 2M alliance has announced a further blank sailing this week from Asia to North Europe to use the vessel on another service. 

The last-minute cancellation of the sailing of the 19,224 teu MSC Erica from Shanghai on 21 February is surprising, given that the ship is due at the port at 4am on Sunday in ballast and, according to a local report, is fully booked. 

MSC said the omission of its Griffin-branded service was necessary “to enhance schedule reliability”, while Maersk said cancelling its AE55 ...

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  • David Thompson

    February 16, 2021 at 3:38 pm

    I’d love to hear Simon Sundboell’s reasoning behind the theory that blank sailings improve schedule reliability because it sounds bonkers to me. Any chance you could get that from him in a further article?

    • Alex Lennane

      February 16, 2021 at 4:06 pm

      We’ll see what we can do!

    • Mike Wackett

      February 17, 2021 at 3:14 pm

      Hi there Dave. If a carrier delays the sailing of a ship in the current week in order to regain the schedule for the following week then its reliability is improved – albeit at the cost of the sailing this week of course!