Alaska is the latest state that is looking to sue the federal government for not allowing the cruise industry to resume. According to Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, “if we don’t get a positive dialogue this week, that’s a real possibility because the decision will be crushing to Alaska”.
The case was a long time coming. Alaska Representative Don Young urged the Governor to sue the federal government since at least last February. Young is also one of those who are looking to find a workaround that will get the cruises to operate once again. Unfortunately, with the conditional sailing order, any workaround won’t be possible.
Florida was the first to file a lawsuit against the CDC. Governor Ron DeSantis said that the federal government has no right to “mothball a major industry for over a year”. As the airline industry is now back, even selling middle seats, the cruise industry wants to have a level playing field and allow them to operate again.
Carnival’s CEO Arnold Donald says that cruises are much safer than other forms of transportation, yet they are subject to stricter measures.
Possible Restart by July 4
The conditional sailing order only allows ships to operate with up to 250 people on board. For this reason, smaller domestic cruises were able to operate in the past months. Unfortunately, this isn’t the same for large cruise ships. It was announced that cruises are now looking to leave US homeports to be able to operate again.
The CDC updated its conditional sailing order. Unfortunately, there is still no exact date when the cruise industry is going to restart again.
Republican senators also filed a bill that would reverse the CDC’s conditional sailing order. Senators Rick Scott, Marco Rubio, and Dan Sullivan came up with the CRUISE Act that aims to resume cruise operations by July 4. The Cruise Act will get CDC to provide mitigation guidance for the industry.
