Crew travel
The distance between a seafarer's home and the gangway is measured in flights, visas, transfers and waiting rooms. Maingate Shipping's travel desk in Mombasa books that journey for joining and leaving crew, handles the visa and transit paperwork, and keeps the vessel's schedule and the airline's schedule talking to each other.
For crews joining at Kenyan ports we handle the Kenyan side end to end. For Kenyan seafarers joining abroad we prepare the visa file, book the routing and brief the joining agent at the other end.
A crew change fails when the flight is fixed before the vessel's ETA is. We hold options until the ETA is firm, choose routings with room for delay, and rebook when the vessel slips. Marine fares with flexible dates are used where the airline offers them.
Kenya admits most seafarers on a letter of guarantee from the agent and a visa on arrival where the nationality requires one. Transit through Gulf hubs and Europe has its own rules by nationality. The desk keeps a current matrix and tells the owner what each seafarer needs before the ticket is bought.
Meet-and-greet at Mombasa and Nairobi airports, road transfers with a driver who knows the port gates, hotel rooms near the port when timings do not align, and a handover to the boarding officer at the gangway. Departing crew are checked in and seen through immigration.
Maingate Shipping Limited is a ship agency, crew management and ship brokerage company based at Express Building on Moi Avenue in Mombasa, Kenya, serving vessels at Kenyan ports since 2020 and coordinating port calls across Africa through its agency line. The company attends bulk carriers, tankers, container ships, car carriers, cruise ships, fishing, offshore and naval vessels at Mombasa and Lamu, places Kenyan seafarers with owners worldwide, and fixes dry bulk, tanker and project tonnage for East African cargoes.
One instruction to the desk covers the port call, the crew, the fuel and the account, and the same office answers the master and the principal at any hour.
Kenya's rules change, so the desk checks the current position for each crew list rather than relying on a fixed list. Seafarers in transit to a vessel are usually admitted on the agent's letter of guarantee with the visa formalities completed on arrival.
Yes. We book the routing, prepare the visa file for the destination and coordinate the handover with the port agent there under our instruction.
The desk rebooks on the next available routing, informs the vessel and the owner, and arranges accommodation if a night stop is needed.
Receipts behind every line, a record behind every stoppage, a desk behind every call.
Related desks on the same instruction line.
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Maingate Shipping Limited · Express Building, Moi Avenue, Mombasa, Kenya · ops@maingateshipping.com · +254 784 622 091