Next corona wave for cruises – quayside calm

Dusseldorf Forced stay in Lisbon instead of New Year’s Eve in Madeira: Almost 3,000 people on board the German cruise ship “Aida Nova” had to break off their trip in Portugal before it began. 52 crew members tested positive for the corona virus, the ship remained in port.

The beginning of the week in Dubai was also over for the passengers of the “Mein Schiff 6”. Due to “isolated cases” of Corona, the trip had to be canceled, said the shipping company Tui Cruises. Despite the increasing number of incidents, the markets apparently do not expect another corona crisis in the cruise industry.

The day after the early “Mein Schiff 6” failure became known, the shares of the Hanover-based tour operator Tui, to which half of the Tui Cruises shipping company reports, rose by 7.2 percent. Co-operator Royal Caribbean gained almost two percent on the New York Stock Exchange. The same applies to the US company Carnival. The share of the owner of the Rostock shipping company Aida Cruises, number one on the world’s oceans, has gained more than seven percent on Wall Street since the beginning of the year.

With the spread of the Omikron variant, the number of new infections on the ships of the fleets increases daily. And with that, the corona-related plan changes and travel cancellations are increasing.

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The cruise ship “MS Amera” only returned to Bremerhaven five days earlier than planned on Tuesday morning. The Bonn operator Phoenix Reisen had already canceled its planned Canary Islands trip on December 29, 2021. At that time, there were ten corona cases among crew members, said a spokeswoman for Phoenix Reisen.

The infected crew members of the “MS Amera” had already been quarantined in the Canary Islands last week, and all 349 guests tested negative, according to Phoenix. Together with the shipping company, on the advice of the health authorities, it was decided to also cancel the ship’s next voyage. It should have started on January 9th for the Mediterranean.

Brazil ceases operations

The cases are increasing noticeably. On Monday, the “MSC Grandiosa” with 5000 passengers and crew members on board reported that 150 travelers were infected with Corona. She and her contacts first had to isolate themselves in the cabins, and some of the infected were brought off board in Genoa, Italy. However, the situation is nowhere near as devastating as it was at the beginning of the pandemic almost two years ago. At that time, there were massive disease outbreaks with dozens of deaths on several cruise ships around the world.

The pressure on the industry is growing, however, also from the government side. In late December 2021, the U.S. health agency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strongly advised citizens not to take a cruise. The vaccination status does not play a role, it said in the message.

The Foreign Office in Berlin also advises against such ship trips. There is a risk that travelers will be quarantined on the ship. A return transport to Germany is also questionable.

Brazil completely stopped cruise operations because of hundreds of infections. The stop, allegedly a voluntary measure by the shipping association, is initially valid until January 21. Brazil’s health agency Anvisa has also reportedly announced investigations into two shipping companies over possible health violations.

Unlike in the first corona wave in early 2020, there is no panic among investors. This is probably not only due to the experience with the global economic programs to rescue the travel industry that were launched during the first corona crisis. The comparatively mild course of the disease is also calming down – according to the company, the vaccinations are having an effect. “On the ‘Mein Schiff 6’ all those who tested positive had no or only slight symptoms,” explains a spokeswoman for Tui Cruises. “The vaccinations make a huge difference.”

In February 2020, 712 people were infected on the “Diamond Princess” alone, with 3700 travelers. The ship, which was quarantined off the Japanese port city of Yokohama for two weeks, killed seven people and 32 suffered serious illnesses. Until the cruise stop imposed worldwide on April 23, 2020, another 58 people had died on nine similar luxury liners.

“On the move with tried and tested hygiene concepts”

The shipping companies are now successfully preventing such horror scenarios. Both crew members and guests over the age of twelve must be fully vaccinated today in order to be allowed to board, explains Tui Cruises. In addition, regular tests are carried out after departure. “Since the restart in July 2020, we have been using tried and tested hygiene concepts,” explains the Hamburg cruise line.

While the “Mein Schiff” fleet is checking after the latest pandemic whether existing rules need to be tightened, competitor Aida has already answered this question for itself. At least until the end of January 2022, shore excursions will only be offered in guided groups in order to be able to guarantee compliance with all hygiene measures at all times.

“We also urgently recommend wearing higher quality FFP2 masks and booster vaccinations,” explains a shipping company spokesman. Medical mouth and nose protection is already mandatory in most interior areas on board.

Another restriction: with immediate effect, Aida no longer offers childcare in its “Kids Club” without an adult. The company also wants to adjust the entertainment and activity program on board.

In fact, the Omikron variant dampens the action, reports Helge Grammerstorf, Germany managing director of the international cruise association CLIA. “But we will also be able to cope with this because of our tightened security standards,” he says confidently. By the summer of 2022, around 90 percent of the cruise fleet will be back in service.

Aida cruise canceled due to corona infections

For cruise lines, however, it’s not just about keeping loyal customers. Without new business, many in the booming sector are threatened with decline. The reason lies in the still rapidly growing ship capacities, the orders of which were placed in the order books before the pandemic broke out.

In January 2022, for example, “Cruise Industry News” set a new record for the number of cruise ships at sea after the outbreak of the pandemic. The journal reports that 242 floating holiday resorts are expected to be on the seas this month.

32 new luxury liners have been announced for 2022 alone – with a total value of 17.8 billion dollars. Six of these ships come from the market leader, Aida mother Carnival. Last year, just nine leisure steamers across the industry were scrapped.

Shipyards are in dire straits

The hype surrounding the commissioning of new ships hides the fact that the shipyards have long been in a bitter lull. With the beginning of the pandemic, the shipping companies massively throttled ship orders. The order books are empty like never before.

The Papenburger Meyer Werft, so far the main supplier for shipping companies such as Aida Cruises, Costa or Norwegian Cruise Line, has only won one new order since the outbreak of the pandemic. That was in March 2021. A rather small cruise ship with a length of 229 meters is to be built for the Japanese shipping company NYK by 2025.

The workload will almost halve in the coming years with a 40 percent decline, announced company boss Jan Meyer at the end of the year. A loss of 180 million euros had already been made in 2020. In order to avoid mass layoffs, a voluntary termination program with accompanying measures such as scholarships and retraining was set up with the employees in mid-2021. They also want to shift to new business areas, such as fuel cells and battery-powered mega yachts.

Aida passengers back in Germany

MV Werften in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania could be hit even worse. The association of the shipbuilding companies in Rostock, Wismar and Stralsund, which the cruise group Genting Hong Kong took over in 2016 to build its own ships, is in serious difficulties due to Corona. The Asians are currently looking for a solution to be able to pay the wages of their 1900 employees on the Baltic coast in a few days.

Months ago, Berlin jumped at the shipyard association with around 300 million euros in the form of a silent partnership and a loan from the economic stabilization fund. Now another 130 million euros are to be put into the MV Werften in order to save the existence of the company.

Corona has thwarted Genting’s ambitious plans. With a length of 342 meters, 20 decks and space for 9500 passengers, the “Global 1”, which is currently under construction, was to become the largest cruise ship in the world.

But the shipping company ran out of money in 2020 after its ships had been idle for months. The ocean liner, four times the size of the legendary Titanic in terms of gross register tons, is threatened with the temporary end of construction after three quarters of completion.

More: Luxury course despite high debt: cruise giant Norwegian is planning a new start

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