The company, which operates Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises, generated record-breaking revenue of $2.5 billion – up 33% versus 2019 – during the last three-month period.
In line with guidance, occupancy was 106% in the quarter and total revenue per passenger cruise day jumped by 16% compared with the same period in 2019.
Bookings for the fourth quarter are ahead of 2019 levels at higher pricing, NCLH said. As of 30 September, NCLH’s advance ticket sales total was $3.1 billion – 59% higher than in the same quarter in 2019.
Nonetheless, NCLH said adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) for its 2023 full-year come in at around $1.86 billion, which is within the previously provided range.
The company indicated the wildfires in Hawaii and the escalating conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Middle East had impacted operations.
NCL’s Hawaii-based ship changed itineraries in August to avoid stretching local resources. Demand for the line’s Hawaii’s cruises has “improved” recently and is “now approaching normalised levels”, its parent company said.
In addition, NCLH has cancelled and redirected all calls to Israel for the rest of 2023 and all of 2024 due to the ongoing conflict in the country. Prior to the conflict, around 7% of capacity in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 4% of capacity for next year visited, or was due to visit, the Middle East.
NCLH president Harry Sommer said: “We achieved strong third quarter results, meeting or beating guidance on all key metrics, driven not only by healthy demand from our target upmarket consumer, but also as our ongoing margin enhancement initiative, including relentless efforts to rightsize our cost base, continues to bear fruit.
“Looking ahead, while we are prudently moderating short-term expectations and keeping a close eye on rapidly evolving global macroeconomic and geopolitical events, we remain encouraged by our strong forward-booked position and robust pricing and are focused on sustaining this momentum as we close out 2023.”
Sommer said he was confident that NCLH was “taking the right steps to best position us to deliver on our goals of rebuilding margins, generating outsized returns on our disciplined capacity growth, reducing leverage and maintaining best-in-class product”.
