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Hurricanes hit Royal Caribbean quarterly profits
An “exceptionally disruptive” series of hurricanes hitting Florida and the Caribbean resulted in lost revenue and extra costs for Royal Caribbean/Celebrity Cruises.
Parent company Royal Caribbean Cruises said the storms were directly responsible for a $0.10 per share impact on its third quarter earnings, covering the period to September 30.
A company statement said: “While storm activity is not unusual, this series of storms was exceptionally disruptive because of a unique combination of their path, their speed and their timing.
“Not only was this season the most costly in the company’s 33-year history, it was worse than all the previous seasons combined.”
Despite this, the US cruise giant achieved record profits of $282.5 million in the three months, against $191.9 million the same quarter last year. Quarterly revenues rose by more than 23% to $1.4 billion year-on-year.
The 29-ship company said forward bookings were “encouraging”, with yields by the end of the financial year expected to increase by nine per cent over 2003.
Bookings for 2005 remain strong with load factors ahead of the same time last year and improved demand, according to the company.
But Royal Caribbean admitted that fuel prices continue to be “an important variable” and it faces the prospect of incurring substantial additional costs.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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