The emerging charismatic leader of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (NCLH) Frank Del Rio has every reason to be confident with the outlook for 2016. In the first instance momentum of bookings moving into 2016 are robust, surpassing NCLH' own 11% capacity growth. Moreover, pricing is up in parallel across all 3 brands, featuring a 12% longer booking trend.
The first few months may yet prove to be challenging for the following 2 reasons:
- The Pride of America, NCL's highest performing vessel will go into drydock
- The Norwegian Epic's is expected to earn lower yields in Europe during low season compared to its peak season during Caribbean deployment in 2015.
NCLH's long-range target is increasing net yields from 3% to 4% in years when new ships are introduced. On this basis the following new builds will come into service in 2016:
- Oceania Cruises: Sirena
- Regent Seven Seas Cruises: Seven Seas Explorer
- The first complete year of operations for Norwegian Escape.
In fact the Norwegian Escape is proving to be twice as productive in revenue terms as other vessel, thereby performing record bookings for NCL and exceeding the expectations of the company. Frank Del Rio even went onto state that "Pound for pound or, rather, ton for ton, the offering on Norwegian Escape will impress the most discerning travelers".
