Royal Caribbean Cruises posts first quarter loss

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For the first quarter of 2009, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines dropped into the red, reporting a net loss of $36.2 million, the company said on Thursday.

The first quarter loss stands in comparison with the company’s profit of $75.6 million reported for the same quarter in 2008.

Revenues were also down, to $1.3 billion, as compared with $1.4 billion for the first quarter of last year. The decline in net yields was 13.5 per cent.

Royal Caribbean’s chairman and CEO, Richard Fain, commented: “Obviously, we are never happy to report a loss, but I am pleased that the full year earnings outlook has not changed materially. Given the horrible economy, I am encouraged by a more stable revenue environment and I am proud that our people have been able to reduce expenses and deliver better than expected results.”

Brian Rice, the cruise line’s CFO, said: “In January, we noted that our booking patterns had begun to stabilise but that there was still a high level of uncertainty in the market. Since then, we have seen consumer behaviour stabilise even further.”

He went on to say: “We are obviously not completely back to equilibrium yet, but the predictability of our bookings gets better every day and the risk of a dramatic deviation continues to fall.”

Thanks to www.travelmole.com for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.

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