Greta Shipping will join Maersk's weekly Salalah–Mogadishu HAX/Musafir Express from mid-October, slotting a 1,700-TEU vessel alongside the Danish carrier's 2,500-TEU ship, according to Alphaliner data.

The vessel-sharing agreement hands Greta feeder access on a key East Africa corridor while letting Maersk preserve weekly frequency without deploying additional owned tonnage. Combined nominal capacity on the HAX/Musafir Express will sit at roughly 4,200 TEU per sailing.

What does Greta bring beyond the Maersk slot?

Greta has simultaneously launched three standalone services to round out its Middle East, Red Sea and Indian Subcontinent network:

• SKX (Salalah–Khor Fakkan Express): fortnightly calls between Omani transhipment hub Salalah and UAE port Khor Fakkan
• IR (India–Red Sea): three-week rotation linking Nhava Sheva, Mundra and Port Sudan
• IOS (India–Oman Service): fortnightly Nhava Sheva–Sohar loop

The four new strings position the carrier across an arc running from East Africa through the Bab-el-Mandeb and into the western Indian Subcontinent, lanes that have historically carried grains, cement, project cargo and FMCG reefer volumes.

What changes for shippers and carriers on the corridor?

For Maersk, the partnership secures feeder coverage on Mogadishu without committing fresh tonnage at a time when mainline operators are recalibrating East Africa schedules around Red Sea routing uncertainty. For Greta, slot access to a Maersk-operated string offers an immediate footprint on a lane it would struggle to serve alone at weekly frequency.

Shippers booking the HAX/Musafir Express should see no immediate transit-time shift. The January 2027 fleet adjustment will mark the first real test of schedule reliability, when Greta adds a second vessel and displaces Maersk's 2,500-TEU contribution.

If Greta fields two smaller ships against the current one-ship-plus-slot configuration, call reliability will hinge on port turnaround at Salalah and Mogadishu, where berth windows remain tight.

How does the capacity stack up?

Greta's standalone services operate at feeder economics. SKX and IOS each deploy fortnightly; IR runs on a three-week cycle. None of the three new strings carries the 2,500-TEU scale of Greta's Maersk slot, suggesting the carrier is chasing niche regional flows rather than competing for mainhaul volumes.

For forwarders, the addition broadens options into Mogadishu, Port Sudan and Sohar at a time when regional carriers have thinned schedules. Salalah's positioning as both a Maersk and Greta call point reinforces its role as the consolidation hub for East African and Gulf feeders.

On the IR service, the Nhava Sheva–Mundra–Port Sudan rotation targets Indian exports of rice, sugar and chemicals into a Sudanese market where Red Sea routings have compressed schedule options. Greta's three-week frequency will appeal to shippers willing to wait for direct calls rather than routing via transhipment hubs.

The IOS string, running fortnightly between Nhava Sheva and Sohar, will compete with established India–Gulf feeder operators for reefer and textile cargo feeding Oman's growing hinterland demand.

What comes next?

Greta's January 2027 capacity addition will show whether the carrier treats the Maersk partnership as a foothold or a long-term replacement play. Alphaliner's data indicates the second vessel will take over Maersk's tonnage slot, effectively converting the HAX/Musafir Express into a Greta-operated string by mid-2027 if the plan holds.

The expansion lands against a backdrop of constrained Red Sea routings and steady growth in intra-regional Indian Ocean trade, where smaller feeders have picked up volumes that mainhaul strings deprioritised. Greta's ability to maintain weekly reliability with two smaller ships from January 2027 will determine whether Mogadishu retains its current call frequency under a new operator mix.