Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings expect the coronavirus will hit their earnings by more than a half-billion dollars combined.
The world's three largest cruise companies — known collectively as "The Big Three — anticipate a $555m total impact to their full-year 2020 expectations as a result of the Covid-19 virus that has thus far taken more than 2,000 lives.
Norwegian has lowered its 2020 guidance by $0.75 earnings per share (EPS), resulting in a $160m impact across nearly 213m shares outstanding.
The company, which reported $156m in adjusted fourth-quarter profit on Thursday, foresees 2020 EPS to be between $5.40 to $5.60, excluding the coronavirus overhang.
"As a result of the strong global demand for cruises witnessed throughout 2019, we entered 2020 in the best booked position and at prices higher than last year’s record levels," chief executive Frank Del Rio said in a statement.
"This trend continued through late January until the COVID-19 outbreak began having an adverse impact on our business."
NCL said on a conference call that it had cancelled voyages in Asia for the first nine months of 2020.
It has been forced to cancel, modify or redeploy 40 voyages in total across all three of its brands and provide compensation to customers.
The company will switch to the eastern Mediterranean in the summer, with an “extremely condensed booking window,” it said.
CEO Frank Del Rio said on the call that the company took the “aggressive action” of cancelling trips to avoid a repeat of the quarantine of Diamond Princess in Japan.
Arnold Donald-led Carnival foresees a $0.55 to $0.65 hit to 2020 profit if it halts Asian operations through April, translating into a $343m loss across more than 507m shares outstanding.
The 105-ship juggernaut, which holds 47% of the worldwide cruise market, has seen the most coronavirus-related challenges of the three cruise majors, including quarantining thousands of passengers aboard Princes Cruises' 115,900-gt Diamond Princess (built 2004).
Two weeks ago, Richard Fain-led Royal Caribbean cut its 2020 guidance by $0.25 EPS after cancelling nine cruises out of China by that time due to the coronavirus outbreak.
That impact equals a $52.4m loss across almost 210m shares outstanding.
Carnival and Royal Caribbean will not allow anyone who has travelled through China in the past two weeks to board its ships, while Norwegian will turn away those who have been through the country in 30 days.
