Christian is the only port President & CEO to serve concurrently as the CEO of a Short Line Railroad, the NOPB. Under her leadership, all lines of business are experiencing significant growth as the Master Plan strategies are implemented. This includes considerable growth in cargo, rail, cruise, and industrial real estate. The exception to this growth spur is in tariff-impacted breakbulk.
As Louisiana’s only international container port, Port NOLA moved 591,253 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2018. This 12.3% increase represents more containers moved than ever recorded previously.
Port Nola’s growth trend also applies to their ocean-going and riverine cruise business which realized a total of 1.18 million cruise passenger movements in 2018. The announcement in September 2018 of Disney Cruise coming to the Port in 2020 was followed by two additional news releases: the debut of the Norwegian Breakaway and the return of the Royal Caribbean’s Vision of the Seas promising continued growth in the cruise sector.