Crystal “Emphatically” Denies Claims Its River Fleet Is For Sale

Pursuing a report on June 28 that alleged “Crystal Cruises seemingly has put its river fleet up for sale,” the river cruise line place out a statement “emphatically” denying the claims.

The primary report mentioned the details came from an email from a Florida ship broker that was despatched to other European river strains. It experienced said that the five river ships created by Crystal in between 2016 and 2018 are now “trading on the Rhine” and can “be produced for sale.” The email, in accordance to the report, also mentioned that “the proprietors are really significant sellers.”

The ships reportedly for sale were Crystal Mozart, Crystal Debussy, Crystal Mahler, Crystal Ravel and Crystal Bach.

In a statement on Thursday, Crystal River Cruises SVP and running director Walter Littlejohn said, “We emphatically deny the accuracy of an e-mail sent to our competitors by a Florida ship broker, with whom we have no contractual romance and to whom our lawful crew has issued an instant stop and desist letter.”

In August 2020, Genting Hong Kong, the guardian firm of Crystal Cruises, submitted a financial doc with the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Restricted, describing that it’s quickly suspending all payments to the group’s monetary creditors to maintain liquidity. The enterprise at the time said that it was reserving its remaining accessible hard cash “to keep critical solutions” for its operations. “The COVID-19 pandemic has experienced and will continue to have a product influence on the economical place and outcomes of procedure of the Team,” Genting’s submitting reported.

In a statement furnished to Travel Agent at the time, Crystal mentioned, “It is vital to comprehend that the firm is not likely out of business. Regardless of what alternative our father or mother company pursues, it will enable Crystal to work its organization.”

This 7 days, having said that, GGR Asia reported (the day next the preliminary assert concerning the probable sale of Crystal’s river fleet) that Genting Hong Kong had concluded a sequence of specials with its world-wide creditors aiming “to give even more cash and steadiness to the group.” The company mentioned the offers incorporated accessibility to new personal loan services amounting to about $700 million, an modification and extension of its present money indebtedness, and provision of “backstop funding” arrangements to deal with long run liquidity needs.

In his assertion, Littlejohn noted that the 5-ship fleet sailed at over 97 per cent occupancy in 2019 and, wanting ahead, “bookings are up properly in excessive of 50 percent, selling at our complete optimum pricing at any time, with a 28 per cent ability improve.”

“We would like to assure our valued attendees, vacation advisors and staff customers that Crystal is steadfastly centered on pivoting absent from the travails of the pandemic as we put together to slowly resume service this yr on August 29 with Crystal Ravel on the Danube and August 30 with Crystal Debussy on the Rhine, equally of which are quite greatly booked,” Littlejohn stated. “This resumption follows the restart of our ocean organization with the future July 3 sailing of Crystal Serenity from Nassau, Bahamas and the July 17 maiden voyage of the model-new expedition ship Crystal Endeavor, just christened in Germany past weekend, from Reykjavik, Iceland. Soon the enterprise will announce a revised restart of the Crystal Symphony with voyages starting late summertime.”

This story at first appeared on www.luxurytraveladvisor.com.

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