The group, which also owns the Celebrity Cruises and Silversea brands, still made an operating loss of $1.2 billion during its first quarter but expects to return to profit in the second half of 2022.
Jason Liberty, president and chief executive of the Royal Caribbean Group, said: "Despite the impact of Omicron earlier in the year and the horrific conflict in Ukraine, we are encouraged by the strong demand for cruising and the steady acceleration in booking volumes.
“We are optimistic that 2022 will be a strong transitional year as we return to full operations and profitability in the second half of the year.”
Royal Caribbean Group said bookings through the key wave booking period improved “consistently” week-on-week and reached “typical wave levels” by the end of March.
The group saw revenue increase to $1 billion in the first quarter of 2022, compared with sales of just $42 million during the same period last year.
The company added that consumers were currently booking cruises closer to sailing which was helping to fill ships. Prices are currently higher than in 2019, even when the impact of future cruise credits is taken into account.
Bookings for European cruises rose throughout the first quarter for the group, but “softened due to the war in Ukraine with a bigger impact on Baltic itineraries”.
“While bookings for Europe are now exceeding 2019 levels for the same period, the situation in Ukraine is expected to weigh on load factors in Europe this summer,” added Royal Caribbean Group in its first quarter results announcement.
The group which now has 63 ships across its brands, with the recent additions of Wonder of the Seas and Celebrity Beyond, said that 54 vessels were back in service by the end of March, with the full fleet expected to return to operations by the start of the summer 2022 season.
It is now operating in “almost all” destinations with Australian itineraries set to resume in late 2022 after the country announced the resumption of cruise holidays in April. But China remains closed to cruising due to its ongoing Covid lockdowns with the group’s ships “temporarily redeployed to other markets”.
