Showing there is still life left in the cruise industry if it can make it through 2020, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH -0.21%) says its Oceania Cruises just set a one-day record for its 2022 Europe & North America Collection of voyages.
In an SEC filing Thursday, the cruise line operator said the record-setting day represented an increase of more than 20% over Oceania's 2021 season launch, which occurred in August 2019.
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Sailing off into the sunset
Indicating the latent consumer demand that still exists for taking cruises, Norwegian said 90% of the bookings were new cash bookings, and less than 10% were booked with credits from prior cruises that have been canceled. Moreover, more than one-third of the bookings were guests new to Oceania.
Still, underscoring how dicey the sailing situation remains, Norwegian says the bookings may not be representative of cruise revenue because of the potential for future cancellations.
The Europe & North America collection begins sailing in March 2022, and features 159 cruises and 250 ports of call. Industry site Travel Agent Central says the collection offers 54 itineraries that range from one to two weeks in length, while another 54 have itineraries as long as 46 days.
Norwegian Cruise Line's third-quarter earnings report showed 99.7% of its revenue evaporated compared to last year with just $6.5 million generated. Its monthly cash burn was $150 million, which it expects to rise to $175 million in the fourth quarter.
Yet the cruise operator has almost $2.4 billion in cash and equivalents suggesting it has plenty of ballast to weather the storm. Like industry peers Carnival and Royal Caribbean, Norwegian has suspended virtually all cruises for the remainder of 2020.
