This week the UK announced a cabin baggage ban on larger mobile devices on inbound flights from six Middle East and North African countries. The six countries are: Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia.
The restrictions will apply to laptops, tablets, DVD players and larger phones which are over a specified size. These items will have to be stored in hold luggage instead.
Speaking to TTG ahead of the first Trade Partner and Club Royal Awards on Thursday night, Royal Caribbean International’s Ben Bouldin said: “We are watching what is unfolding very carefully.
“There’s a different level ban here to what the US government is enforcing. It really affects flights out of Turkey and we don’t call there at the moment.
“We haven’t taken any further action...But we’re always concerned, I think you have to be. The safety of our guests is always our priority at all times.”
He added that Royal Caribbean’s security team in the US was “in touch with everyone they need to be”. Asked if this included the US government, he replied: “Yes”.
And citing Wednesday’s Westminster attack, Bouldin said: “We have safety practices in place which we believe are the best in class but you can never predict the actions like yesterday [the Westminster attack]. From what I’ve heard though, the emergency services were nothing short of outstanding.”
Elsewhere, Bouldin suggested concerns over Brexit had affected the market and altered booking patterns.
“What we’re seeing is that the mix [of bookings] is different,” he said.
“We’re seeing strong demand for ex-UK sailings – we have the same capacity [sailing out of Southampton] yet we’re better sold right now compared with this same time last year.”
“Make of that what you will,” he added.
Bouldin said Royal Caribbean had seen a “strong” start to the year overall, with Asia-Pacific also performing well. “There’s a strong demand for long-haul such as Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong. And the Caribbean has got some momentum this year.”
He also dismissed suggestions of the so-called "Trump Slump", and insisted the line had seen no impact on the UK market. “We are seeing a lot of US passengers booking European sailings here because of the exchange rate though,” he added.
Meanwhile bookings for the line’s forthcoming ship Symphony of the Seas, which launches in April next year have performed particularly well since going on sale two weeks ago, especially in the UK. “It [Symphony] has done really well – I think it helped that we launched it on its own so it had its own space,” (the line launched the rest of its 2018 programme on Wednesday).
However Bouldin acknowledged that placing Symphony on sale earlier had presented challenges: “It meant that it had a less-than-smooth process,” he admitted. “But it created a lot of excitement and the UK market has done exceptionally well. We are punching above our fair share of the global market with Symphony sales.”
