(Reuters) – Cruise ship industry rivals are uniting in an effort to navigate again.
On Monday, the Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd announced a joint working group to help develop security standards to restart their businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
The “Healthy Navigation Panel,” co-chaired by former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt and former Commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration Scott Gottlieb, is advising companies on the restart plans they will present to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other regulators in late August. The panel plans to share its findings with the entire cruise industry and regulators.
The cruise industry has been hit by the pandemic, with some of the first large groups of COVID-19 occurring on board cruise ships in which thousands of passengers and crew were crowded together.
On March 14, the CDC issued a no-sail order for all cruises, which was later extended to July 24.
Operators like Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, and Carnival Corp have voluntarily extended their hiatus from operations from US ports through September.
During a group interview on Monday, Leavitt, Royal Caribbean CEO Richard Thain, and Norwegian Cruise Line CEO Frank Del Rio did not offer details on what protocols might be included in an industry restart, or if spikes Recent US coronavirus cases pause in operations.
“We are all feeling our way here, and it has become clear to me that a change is taking place sociologically in the context of the masks,” Leavitt said. “I think it will be very interesting to see what other companies do. And not only the cruise lines, but others. We are all working to overcome this. ”
(Report by Helen Coster; edition by Jonathan Oatis)
