The booking curve is getting longer and Royal Caribbean Group is on the cusp of taking more bookings for 2025 than 2024, executives said Thursday.
During the company's Q1 earnings call with investors, CEO Jason Liberty said this Wave season was "absolutely exceptional" with year-over-year growth in the mid-teens. April bookings were up even higher and grew at twice the year-over-year growth that Q1 did.
"That acceleration has picked up to speed," he said. "At this point, we only have about 12% of load factor left for the year," he said.
That doesn't mean Royal Caribbean has sold 88% of cabins, since load factors can exceed 100% in cruising. But it does mean that the company is very well booked for the year and 2024 inventory is dwindling.
Said Liberty, "We're getting close to the point where we'll soon be taking more bookings for 2025 than we are for 2024. When we look into booking behavior, the booking window continues to extend, so guests are making their decisions further out."
CFO Naftali Holtz put it this way: "Bookings have been outpacing last year by a wide margin on a weekly basis, despite having less inventory remaining for sale. As a result, we continue to be in a record booked volume position and our booked per diems are now even further ahead of 2023 than they were as we entered the year."
Royal Caribbean Group's Q1 revenue was $3.73 billion, a 29% increase from a year earlier. Operating income was $750 million, a 175% increase.
Because the company had $424 million in interest expense, net income was only $364 million.