Mega ship Norwegian Epic’s first winter of operation helped Norwegian Cruise Line trim quarterly winter net losses to $10.6 million.
The figure for the three months ending March was achieved on improved revenue of $495.5 million compared to $416.5 million and a net loss of $16.1 million in the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA improved 37.5% to $81.9 million against $59.5 million for the same period of 2010.
Continued “pricing discipline and cost control”, along with economies of scale attributed to Norwegian Epic, allowed the company to absorb a 6.6% increase in the per metric ton price of fuel in the period, NCL said.
The price of fuel for the first quarter rose to $520 per metric ton from $488 in 2010.
Net yield was up as a result of improved prices and increased onboard spend.
President and chief executive Kevin Sheehan said: “I am pleased to see that pricing along with the impact of Norwegian Epic drove such a significant improvement in the quarter.
“On top of the healthy pace our net yield grew in the quarter, we also rolled over a very lucrative one-month charter in February 2010 for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. Excluding the pricing benefit of this charter, our net yield improvement would have been 3.8% for the quarter.
“In addition, our improved adjusted EBITDA resulted not only from our increased revenue, but also our continued razor focus on controlling costs without affecting the guest experience.”