Norwegian Alters Cuba Itineraries, Quantifies Financial Impact

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings has updated its itineraries across all brands and estimated the financial impact the changes will have on its 2019 financials.

Currently, the company is working to modify all of its itineraries that included Cuba to reflect the ban on ships calling on the island.

“Our three brands are working diligently to accommodate the needs of our guests and travel partners as we quickly modify itineraries to meet the new Cuba travel regulations,” said Frank Del Rio, president and chief executive officer of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd.

“We share in the disappointment that comes with these changes especially on such short notice and sincerely appreciate the cooperation and understanding of our guests for this inconvenience. Our brands have put in place generous compensation programs that offer guests and travel partners a compelling, value-packed alternative.”

Norwegian also pointed to the financial impact these changes will have given the “extremely abbreviated timeframe” the cruise line had to make modifications.

The new restrictions will impact all of Norwegian’s brands, Norwegian Cruise Line, Oceania Cruises and Regent Seven Seas Cruises. Sailings that included a Cuban port of call represented slightly more than 3 percent of the Norwegian’s remaining sailings in 2019 for all three brands.

This impact will result in an adjustment to the company’s earnings for the year. According to Norwegian, the modification of these itineraries, the substantial discounts offered to guests for them to remain on their booked cruise, the accommodation of cancellations and changes to reservations, incremental marketing investment to support the compressed sales cycle for the modified voyages, along with the protection of travel agent commissions will result in an estimated impact to Adjusted EPS for full-year 2019 of approximately $0.35 to $0.45.