Premier League announced that it is upgrading a large number of its proposed services ahead of the launch of its new alliance network in February 2025. The group, made up of Ocean Networks (ONE), Korea New Ocean (HMM) and Yang Ming Maritime, said the changes apply to two trans-Pacific routes and one Asia-Mediterranean route
When HAPAG leaves and joins the Masky Gemini Partnership, the Premier Partnership will replace THE Alliance Alliance, and the biggest change to the original Premier network was the decision to split the Pacific North 3 loop connecting Asia and the Pacific Northwest into two distinct services: PN3 and PN4. ONE stated in a customer consultation that the enhancements were designed to provide faster transit times and improve schedule integrity and reliability, reducing the number of East Coast port stops for each service to 4 compared to the 6 stops in the original PN3 timetable.
Vespucci Maritime CEO and Business Magazine analyst Lars Jensen said in a LinkedIn post on Thursday: “Splitting two routes will improve transit times for Chinese ports, especially those in Qingdao. The modified PN3 rotation routes are Qingdao, Busan, Vancouver, Tacoma, Busan, and Qingdao, with 15 days to transfer between Qingdao and Vancouver and 11 days from Busan to Vancouver. The new PN4 route has rotational routes to Ningbo, Shanghai, Vancouver, Tacoma and Ningbo, with a Ningbo to Vancouver route of 16 days and a Shanghai to Vancouver flight of 12 days.
ANOTHER major change is Premier's Asia-Mediterranean network, which has added Mediterranean-5 (MD5) services, ONE said in another consultation report on Wednesday. Alternating routes on the Suez Canal and Cape of Good Hope routes include Barcelona, Singapore and Shanghai. ONE says the service will enhance direct coverage from the Mediterranean to Asia, providing customers with better connectivity and efficiency.
Jensen said in a LinkedIn post: “This seems to enhance the MS2 service, in which the main route rotation connects Singapore and Shanghai to the Mediterranean, with Barcelona as the first route, which makes MS2 of little use for round-trip business. The final upgrade is Premier adding Jacksonville to its Trans-Pacific East Coast North America 2 (EC2) service, with adjusted alternate routes to Xiamen, Yantian, Ningbo, Shanghai, Busan, Manzanillo (Panama), Savannah, Charleston, Jacksonville, Manzanillo, Busan and Xiamen.
In addition, Yang Ming Sea Shipping said it will launch two European and Mediterranean-focused routes in January independently of the Super Alliance to provide “a more comprehensive, faster service to meet the growing needs of Europe”.
The Taiwanese shipping company said its Nordic - Aegean Express (NEA) service will use four ships to connect the Aegean Sea on 28-day fixed shifts, including London Ports, Antwerp, Rotterdam, Piraeus and Istanbul, Gabouze, Gemlik and the ports of Istanbul, Gabouze, Gemlik and Gimlik in Turkey. Yangming Maritime Transport's Northern Europe-Levant Express (NEL) route will also deploy four ships, rotating once every 28 days, at the London Gateway, Rotterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp, Dehra (Egypt), Damietta (Egypt), Mersin (Turkey) and London Ports.
