"The situation in and around the Red Sea/Gulf of Aden continues to be volatile and all available intelligence at hand confirms that the security risk remains at a significantly high level," Maersk said in a statement.

Maersk said that with immediate effect its Blue Nile Express service would omit Djibouti as well as Jeddah and King Abdullah Port in Saudi Arabia.

The Blue Nile Express normally connects ports in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, India, Djibouti and Saudi Arabia.

Maersk does not expect any impact to carrying capacity, it said.

(Reporting by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Stine Jacobsen)