NCL Holdings Considering Baltic Alternatives

Executives say dropping St. Petersburg would affect 50 itineraries.

During their fourth-quarter earnings call, Mark Kempa, executive vice president, and chief financial officer of NCL Holdings, revealed that they are looking for alternatives to their summer calls to St. Petersburg.

CEO Frank Del Rio said, "The Baltic ships will stay in the Baltic ... if we cannot go to Saint Petersburg, there are many alternative ports in the surrounding countries." "It is disappointing because Saint Petersburg is one of the crown jewels of (an itinerary), but certainly there are alternatives," he said.

Kempa added, "This is something we've been thinking about, and worst-case scenario. if we're not able to call on Saint Petersburg or the surrounding areas, there are plenty of other ports in the Scandinavian region that we have the ability to call on."

Kempa added, "This is something we've been thinking about, and worst-case scenario. if we're not able to call on Saint Petersburg or the surrounding areas, there are plenty of other ports in the Scandinavian region that we have the ability to call on. Europe is a big continent too," Kempa said. This is affecting a very small portion of Europe, and there's a lot of other areas that we can operate in."