The Peninsula and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, often shortened to just P&O, were a global transport company active in at least 1887. They arranged at least passenger service on some of the world's longest routes, such at the multi-week journey between Tilbury and Bombay which Bernice Summerfield, the Seventh Doctor, John Watson and Sherlock Holmes once endured. This voyage, and its return, were undertaken on the SS Matilda Briggs, and involved passage by Port Said through the Suez Canal. (PROSE: All-Consuming Fire)
Behind the scenes
Whether because of Andy Lane's or his editor's mistake, All-Consuming Fire doesn't get the name of this company quite right. Still, there's no real doubt that writer Andy Lane means to evoke the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company. In any case, most of the novel uses the abbreviation P&O, as most Britons do to this day.