Yesterday, THE Alliance announced an enhanced version of their 2018 network to be launched this April. These enhancements can already be found in the eeSea database, but a quick look at what these changes look like on the whole can be found right here.
Most notably, a brand new service, the AR1, has been added to the network. This Far East/Red Sea service will be THE Alliance’s first service to call Sokhna and Aqaba, and is launched in co-operation with Wan Hai Lines.
Two transatlantic services, AL5 and AL6, are the only ones to see changes in comparison with the previously-announced 2018 network. The AL5 has dropped its Tacoma call, and the AL6, which previously had dropped its Halifax call in favour of Baltimore, appears to have reverted to its 2017 form instead. Yang Ming’s announcement also lacks Puerto Quetzal for the AL5, though it still appears on the service map from Hapag-Lloyd.
Otherwise, the enhancements announced are clarifications rather than modifications. In the previous announcement, several services included the regions “South China”, “South East Asia Hub”, and “Pacific North West” in place of some specific port calls. The latest update has nominated ports for those “South China” and “Pacific North West” calls, but not for “South East Asia Hub” calls. PS8’s Pacific North West call has been nominated as Prince Rupert, while South China calls are split between Yantian and Shekou. Nine services (FE2, FE3, FE4, PS4, PS7, PN2, PN3, EC3, and EC4) has nominated Yantian, while the remaining six (MD1, MD2, MD3, AGX, AGX2, and PS3) are to call Shekou. In most cases where an analogous rotation exists in the 2017 network, the nominated port is the same as the one already being called on that service. The exceptions are the Asia-Med services (MD1, MD2, and MD3) which will be changing from Yantian to Shekou in the new network.
Asia and North Europe
FE1: no change
FE2: South China > Yantian (as in 2017 network)
FE3: South China > Yantian (as in 2017 network)
FE4: South China > Yantian (as in 2017 network)
FE5: no change
Asia and the Mediterranean
MD1: South China > Shekou (was Yantian in 2017 network)
MD2: South China > Shekou (was Yantian in 2017 network)
MD3: South China > Shekou (was Yantian in 2017 network)
Asia and the Middle East / Red Sea
AGX: South China > Shekou (as in 2017 network)
AGX2: South China > Shekou (new service for 2018, first alliance service to call Umm Qasr)
AR1: new service, first THEA service to call ports Sokhna and Aqaba
Transpacific – West Coast
PS1: no change
PS2: no change
PS3: South China > Shekou (part of a loop new to the 2018 rotation)
PS4: South China > Yantian (as in 2017 network)
PS5: no change
PS6: no change
PS7: South China > Yantian (as in 2017 network)
PS8: Pacific North West > Prince Rupert (new service for 2018)
PN1: no change
PN2: South China > Yantian (as in 2017 network)
PN3: South China > Yantian (as in 2017 network)
Transpacific – East Coast
EC1: no change
EC2: no change
EC3: South China > Yantian (as in 2017 network)
EC4: South China > Yantian (as in 2017 network)
EC5: no change
Transatlantic
AL1: no change
AL2: no change
AL3: no change
AL4: no change
AL5: – Tacoma, (possibly – Puerto Quetzal)
AL6: + Halifax, – Baltimore (reverting to 2017 rotation)
AL7: no change
Source: previous announcement