Princess has seen UK passenger numbers hit record levels for third successive year with bookings for 2025 running 20% ahead of where they were this time last year.
When the line’s president John Padgett was asked by TTG if he planned to bring a Sphere-class vessel here as a reward for the strong booking levels, he said: “Princess is a globally deployed cruise brand. We sail to 330 destinations around the world and we really value the fly-cruise market out of the UK.
“We want to make sure our UK guests know all of our products on our ships so that they can sail all around the world.”
He added: “I want to make sure Princess is the best cruise line in the UK. We offer a great experience the UK consumer loves. I don’t think I need to put a Sphere-class ship in the UK – you can get the best Princess experience on all of our ships.”
’Growing market share’
Eithne Williamson, Princess Cruises’ UK and Europe vice-president, revealed how the line’s fly-cruise business was growing. “We’re 13% up year-on-year for fly-cruise bookings,” she said. “That is where I want to keep our focus.”
She said that the UK market is currently the third biggest for Princess, while this country ranks second for Sun Princess bookings.
In August, Princess agreed a deal with the UK’s third-largest airline Jet2.com to fly passengers from Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester and Glasgow to the Mediterranean next year.
But Williamson highlighted how the line also scheduled air capacity to other destinations including Alaska where the incoming Star Princess will operate in summer 2026.
Earlier this year, Williamson told TTG how air lift "challenges" can be a booking barrier as she outlined how she wanted to structure the line’s air programme.
“I want to keep growing our market share,” she said. “We have fly-cruise options in the Med, Caribbean and Alaska. We have Jet2 flying passengers to the Med and then scheduled air to Alaska.”
Sun Princess, which is currently operating a 16-day transatlantic cruise to Fort Lauderdale, US, was delayed prior to launching earlier this year to allow for more time for construction to be completed.
However, Padgett insisted sister vessel, Star Princess, would not be delayed next year. “We’re on course for Star to be delivered on time,” he said. “Star is intended to be a duplicate of Sun Princess.
“We don’t want to make too many adjustments. We want Star to be delivered on time as Sun Princess is performing exceptionally well.”
Padgett confirmed “tweaks” were still being made to Sun Princess despite its strong performance since launching six months ago.
“We’re making some tweaks to Sun Princess as you may have heard,” he said. “We’re changing six of the restaurants around.
“We’re reconfiguring ‘Park 19’ and making it into a more recreational area with pickle ball courts and basketball courts. We’re not changing any of the concepts around.”
