Crew changes are one of the most complex logistical operations in the shipping industry, involving tight schedules, connecting flights and travel documentation that can be difficult to coordinate. ATPI Marine Travel and maritime digital identity specialist LEDGID are now looking at a digital solution to make the process easier for seafarers.
The two companies signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at Seatrade Maritime Crew Connect Global on 22 October 2026. The agreement provides a platform to explore how flight bookings, visa information and travel plans can be integrated into the digital world that seafarers already rely on to manage their professional credentials.”
The scheme marries ATPI’s travel booking network with LEDGID’s digital wallet, empowering maritime professionals to keep their qualifications, training certificates and record of experience in their own hands. The companies want to have travel related documents in the same platform reducing the need for seafarers to manage multiple applications, email exchanges and intermediaries when arranging trips to or from their vessels.
Relocating the crew can include many connecting flights, different visa requirements and responding to schedules that can change with little notice. “We can help reduce the administrative complexity and make travel arrangements easier to manage by bringing all of that information together in one digital space.
“The partnership is an opportunity to build on the electronic devices that seafarers already use, but keep the human assistance that is still required for crew travel,” said Nikos Gazelidis ATPI. LEDGID chief executive Henning Mark Davies said the aim was to make ATPI’s services available directly through LEDGID’s own platform so users do not have to move between different systems.
For now the deal is still in an exploratory stage. Development of specific features will be based on technical feasibility and feedback from crew managers and seafarers on their operational needs.
Then the next step will be to see what the proposed integration can do to solve the practical problems of crew travel and to decide on the functionalities that can be implemented.
