Onboard spending driving yield growth
- RCL posted a solid 4.5% (estimated) net onboard and other yield growth (in constant currency) in Q2. According to management, excluding the Affinity error, net onboard and other yield would have grown 8.2%. For comparison, CCL reported a 0.5% net onboard and other yield (in constant currency) growth in FQ2.
- As the chart below shows, one of the reasons why RCL could print such a high onboard number is because they have more room to grow, relative to the 2007 peak.
- RCL’s onboard trend was seen fleetwide as US-sourced customers continue to spend well in the Caribbean and Europe.
- For now, onboard and other yields will drive the top-line performance of both RCL and CCL as ticket yields are barely growing for RCL and significantly lower for CCL.