BV Aids PONANT Fleet Reactivation

Bureau Veritas (BV) is working with PONANT, a cruise company with a fleet of 11 smaller-scale ships, to help implement effective infection prevention measures.

PONANT will use a suite of solutions developed by BV for passenger ship clients to address biological risks, as posed by COVID-19 and other infections. ‘Restart your Business with BV’ provides procedures and measures to protect passengers, company personnel, and other stakeholders as operations are resumed, helping ensure that appropriate health and safety standards are put in place.

Matthieu de Tugny, Executive Vice President Bureau Veritas Marine & Offshore, said, "Bureau Veritas has been working across many industries to help develop new standards both with and for clients, in order to provide assurance to stakeholders and regulators that the risks of infection are being mitigated effectively. This service developed for passenger ships includes a framework of standards and best practices. Compliance with which is demonstrated by our new Bureau Veritas label, SafeGuard.

"The intention is that the label is visible and helps provide confidence to all onboard and in related operations ashore."

The SafeGuard label is awarded when it can be satisfactorily certified that the operator has addressed health, safety and hygiene requirements, has properly implemented necessary procedures, has trained the crew and all employees on board and has, as well, agreed procedures with ports and terminals for port operations.

Speaking on behalf of  PONANT Frédéric Gallois, Chief Operating Officer of the company, said, "The small size of our vessels, the medical infrastructure, and teams onboard, our protocols and the professionalism of our crews ensured that there were no cases of COVID-19 contamination throughout the PONANT fleet. To prepare for the resumption of our activity, we are pleased to collaborate with Bureau Veritas to deploy this SafeGuard label, highlighting the excellence of our protocols."