Pacific Direct Line (PDL) has replaced the 13,000DWT 'Southern Lily' with the 19,000DWT 'Southern Lily II' on its New Zealand-Fiji-Samoa-American Samoa-Tonga schedule. The new vessel commenced operation with voyage 275, which called at Ports of Auckland on June 15 and 16.
'Southern Lily II' also delivers an improved service speed of 18 knots compared with 15.5 knots for its predecessor, and capacity of 1000TEU compared with 770TEU. PDL said the faster service speed provided the opportunity to add a call to Fiji, "without compromising frequency or our customers' existing requirements". The vessel's rotation will be Auckland-Suva-Apia-Pago Pago-Nuku'alofa-Auckland.
PDL will continue to offer a direct Auckland to Nuku'alofa service via the Forum Pacific.
Iain MacIntyre
