Will cruise ship losses in 2020 boost the Australian helicopter industry?
Source: VTOL e-news Asia-Pacific – March 2020 Report.
Pre-coronavirus – good news for cruise lines. In June 2019, the Australian Cruise Association predicted 30 million passengers would be carried globally by end of 2019. Due to the industry growing at 5-7% orders have been placed for another 122 ships to be rolled out by 2027.
In fact, 24 new cruise ships were launched during 2019.
It was estimated in 2027, 38 million passengers will have travelled on 434 ships. The global industry revenue will be USD$134 billion of which Australia’s share will be USD$6.7 billion (AUD$11.1 billion) or 5% of the global market. Looking back on 2019, prior to the COVID-19 coronavirus, the Australian Cruise industry may have carried an estimated 5% of the 30 million passengers, or 1.5 million and earned around AUD$8.7 billion in revenue. That is a lot of money!
Post-coronavirus – good news for helicopter industry. Unfortunately, the cruise ship industry suffered an incalculable amount of extremely adverse publicity due to the handling of their coronavirus issues. The evening television has been full of bad news, ships being stuck at sea due to being banned from sending passengers ashore. And of course, Australian taxpayers had to partly fund the enormous rescue activities to bring stranded Australians back home.
Because of this disastrous episode around the world, it must be assumed cruise companies will suffer greatly and have extremely low bookings over the coming five years or so.
But maybe there is a more positive outlook for Aussie (and Kiwi) operators to consider?
More soon in coming posts.