New-build ships ‘not off the table’, says Celestyal sales boss

Celestyal Cruises is weighing up all options for the expansion of its fleet, including the building of new ships.

 

Currently the cruise line has two vessels – Celestyal Journey and Celestyal Discovery – which were acquired from other companies and have been refurbished.

 

Chief commercial officer Lee Haslett said: “We’ve always said we’ll add more vessels, and hopefully we’ll have news on that before the end of the year.”

 

He said he’d had a busy six months as the cruise line has been “building a platform for growth”.

 

“We’re growing the team on a global scale, so [I am] spending a lot of time in the Gulf region [and] in North America,” he told a Travel Weekly webcast.

 

“We’ve now got a platform for growth. We’ve built the team.”

 

Asked about expanding the fleet, he said: “Everything’s on the table…New-build is not off the table.

 

“We’re building a plan to build the business on a global scale, which means that we will invest heavily in fleet.”

 

Asked about timescales for a possible new-build ship, he continued: “We’ll have to build that long-term plan, which you have to commit to, to be able to build vessels further out.

 

“So you will hear news from us in in due course.”

 

He highlighted how the cruise line recently announced major refinancing, based on Ebitda [and] record revenues last year.

 

“We’ve got a really good platform for growth. This refinancing is a major step forward,” he said.

 

“It means that we’ve got more capital available to accelerate those plans and continue to invest in partnerships, people and the fleet.”

 

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