A German cruise ship on a round-the-world trip put off its 246 passengers and most of its crew in the Yemeni port of Hodeidah yesterday and flew them to Dubai to spare them the risk of encountering pirates in the Gulf of Aden after two attacks on liners in the past two weeks.

The passengers will be put up in a five-star hotel in Dubai for three days while the ship, the MS Columbus, makes the trip through the Gulf of Aden with a skeleton crew, the tour operator Hapag-Lloyd said. They would resume their cruise after getting back on board at the Omani port of Salalah.

Hapag-Lloyd said that it had decided to fly out the passengers “in the interests of safety given the current political situation in the Gulf of Aden”. It said that the German Government had issued a travel warning for the Somali coast and the Gulf of Aden, a major sea lane used by ships heading to and from the Suez Canal, because of a surge in the number of attacks by pirates on ships in the area.

The 167-day cruise of MS Columbus started in Genoa on November 28 and is to end in Nice on May 13 after calling at 83 ports in 42 countries including India, Vietnam, Bali, Australia, Brazil and the Cape Verde islands. A ticket for a double cabin costs from € 31,500 (£28,000) per person, but many passengers join the ship for parts of the voyage.

Pirates have attacked almost 100 ships off the Somali coast this year and have managed to seize about 40, including a Saudi tanker holding $100 million in oil.

“A request to the German Government for an escort was denied,” Hapag-Lloyd said. It told its passengers about the travel warning before the cruise started and 26 people cancelled as a result.

The decision to put off the passengers comes after two pirate attacks on cruise ships at the end of last month. On November 28 a raid on the German liner MS Astor was foiled when a German Navy frigate fired warning shots and sent the attackers fleeing. The US cruise ship Nautica was attacked on November 30 by pirates in two small boats, but was able to outrun them.

Hapag-Lloyd is the only German cruise line that will not be carrying passengers through the Gulf of Aden for the foreseeable future.

The German Cabinet decided to deploy up to 1,400 troops as part of the European Union mission to protect shipping in the area, which began this week.

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