One Ocean Expeditions Cancels Third Voyage
by Daniel McCarthy
One Ocean Expeditions' newly canceled voyage, a 10-night Punta Arenas itinerary. Photo: Sara Galvez / Shutterstock.com.
After announcing earlier this month that it was is in a “difficult period of restructuring” as it goes through an “extremely challenging period of time,” Canada’s One Ocean Expeditions has canceled a third Antarctica voyage, again leaving travelers and advisors out in the cold.
The newly canceled voyage, a 10-night Punta Arenas itinerary, was scheduled to leave on Nov. 21, and was cancelled late notice, according to Polar Regions travel agency Swoop Antarctica.
“We are gravely concerned that once again our customers have been left in a very difficult position by another cancellation by One Ocean Expeditions,” Swoop Antarctica’s Commercial Director Alex Mudd said.
Swoop, which has already stopped selling all of One Ocean’s itineraries, said in a release that One Ocean was still in restructuring talks after the withdrawal of two of its ships by the ships’ Russian owners earlier this year and was hoping to finalize talks with a possible investor to save future voyages.
“While we appreciate that this is a challenging time for One Ocean Expeditions, the cancellations make it very difficult to advise customers on whether future sailings will take place, let alone assist those who were due to fly out this week to board their 21st November sailing,” Mudd added.
One Ocean has not responded to a request from TMR for comment and has not released updated statements since its Oct. 29 post on its Facebook page that caused the news “an unexpected and destabilizing event” for the company.
Travel advisors are reportedly still in the dark as sailings have been canceled, including one to Antarctica that left up to 140 guests stranded in Argentina last month, according to the CBC, and another that was supposed to host a team of students from a West Vancouver Secondary School.
The International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, the organization of more than 100 member companies that is “dedicated to facilitating appropriate, safe and environmentally sound private-sector travel to the Antarctic,” suspended One Ocean Expeditions’ membership in the organization late last month after non-payment of its dues and fees on Nov. 1. One Ocean Expeditions had been a member of the Association for more than a decade.
