Passenger Services Act

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Passenger Services Act is a piece of United States legislation which came into force in 1886 relating to cabotage. Essentially, it says:

No foreign vessels shall transport passengers between ports or places in the United States, either directly or by way of a foreign port, under a penalty of $300 for each passenger so transported and landed.

Any vessel subject to the Jones Act counts as a US vessel.

Norwegian Cruise Lines operating in Hawaiian waters includes a trip to Fanning Atoll in order to comply with the Passenger Services Act

Some exceptions have been made to the requirement of the Passenger Services Act. For example, Canadian vessels may transport passengers between Rochester and Alexandria Bay, New York and between southern Alaska and U.S. ports until such time as a U.S. carrier enters the market. The law has had an interesting consequence with regard to the cruise ship industry within the State of Hawaii. Foreign-flagged cruise ships may carry passengers between ports in the Hawaiian Islands as long as no passenger permanently leaves the vessel at ports other than the origination port and the vessel makes at least one call at a foreign port. Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL) introduced a new US-flagged vessel in 2004, Pride of Aloha, and introduced a second in 2005, Pride of America, to avoid this tedious 4 day at sea foreign-port call. Previously, with its foreign-flagged vessels, NCL needed to include a time-consuming detour to Tabuaeran (Fanning Atoll) in the Line Islands (Republic of Kiribati) on its Hawaiian itineraries.