Broker faces struggle to cope with large, high maintenance cruise ship account

Doubts have been raised this week about Aon's ability to manage the mammoth Carnival Cruise fleet account recently poached from rival Marsh.

Speculation in the market centres on whether the broker can cope with servicing such a high maintenance account and place the business as cheaply as it has led Carnival to believe.

Carnival pays around £40m a year in premiums to cover its 77 ships, which includes the Queen Mary 2, and is valued at £23bn.

A leading market source said: "Whether Aon has the resource to manage the account remains to be seen - it definitely doesn't have the manpower in London currently."

Also of concern is a $25m (£13.8m) outstanding claim from the cancelled Oriana world cruise last Christmas.

Another broker said: "This is a capacity risk. The Queen Mary 2 alone is insured for $800m (£442m). Aon will be running around doing everything it can to place it, but it will have its work cut out."

It has also been suggested that Aon will have to expand its London marine operation in order to cope with the regular changes to cover required and the large number of claims associated with the Carnival book.

Aon declined to comment.