Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd (RCCL), the world's second largest cruise shipping group, says the yield outlook has improved and booked load factors for 2014 are ahead of the situation a year earlier at stable prices.
"The company's yield outlook has improved for the full year 2013. Constant-Currency Net Yield outlook for the full year has been raised to an increase of approximately 3%. Constant-Currency expectations for NCC excluding fuel are unchanged at an increase of 1% to 2%. Fuel costs are expected to be $3 million lower than previously calculated due primarily to energy conservation measures and the Millennium unscheduled drydock," the company said in a statement.
"Based on the above and current fuel prices and currency exchange rates, the company expects that full year adjusted earnings per share will increase to a range of $2.30 to $2.35 per share."
The company's booked load factors are currently ahead of the same time last year in all four quarters of 2014. Booked prices for the first quarter are in-line with the same time last year and are up for the second, third and fourth quarters. Caribbean bookings have consistently been running ahead of the same time last year, although slightly below on a capacity adjusted basis.
"Caribbean pricing remains under some pressure, but while it is early in the booking cycle, we expect yields in the Caribbean to be flat to only slightly down in 2014," said Jason T. Liberty, chief financial officer. "Fortunately, the summer Caribbean is a core strength of ours and with the improvements we are seeing in our other products, we are forecasting overall yield improvement in the low single digits for 2014," said Liberty.