Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings expects to do something in coming months that it has not done in almost two years as a result of the pandemic.
The New York-listed owner of 28 cruise ships plans to have its entire fleet in service by the early part of the second quarter, after returning 16 vessels and 70% of berth capacity to the market since July.
Frank Del Rio-led Norwegian did not specify if the full fleet would sail at full or reduced capacity.
Competitor Carnival Corp told TradeWinds that it has 57 vessels out of 91 ships in service and plans to have all them sailing by the end of June.
Royal Caribbean Group said on Friday that it aims to have its full fleet operating “before the summer season of 2022”.
As part of efforts to resume full sailing, Miami-based Norwegian in mid-January opted to adhere to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Covid-19 Program for Cruise Ships Operating in US Waters.
The agency rolled out the voluntary measures after the 31 January lapse of its order setting conditions for foreign-flagged ships to sail in US waters.
Norwegian said booking volumes for the first half of 2022 are below records attained in the same period of due to the impacts of Omicron variant of Covid-19.
But volumes and pricing of bookings for the second half and full year of 2022 are above pre-pandemic records set in 2019, despite the dilutive effect of future cruise credits.
“Booking trends for 2023 demonstrate continued strong demand for sailings in the medium and longer term with booked position and pricing meaningfully higher and at record levels when compared to 2019,” Norwegian said.
As of 30 September, Norwegian had $12.4bn in debt and $1.9bn in liquidity.
The owner pulled several financing levers in November to keep itself afloat during the pandemic, including taking out another $1bn in debt and issuing $1.15bn in 1.125% notes due 2027.
It also bought back $716m of 6% exchangeable notes due 2024 for about $1.4bn and issued 46.9m shares to notes holders to extinguish $499m in high-interest debt.
Its monthly average cash burn for the fourth quarter of 2021 was about $345m, lower than a prior estimate of $350m.
The company said it expects to report a net loss for the fourth quarter and full-year 2021 and expect to report a net loss until it can resume regular voyages.
But it expects net cash from operations and adjusted net income for the second quarter of 2022 to be positive, despite the impact of the Omicron variant on the booking environment.
