Sweden-based Birka Cruises has announced that it is shutting down, buckling under the financial pressure of the coronavirus pandemic. The cruise line has been unable to run any voyages for several months, and while it has been able to hold on this far, unfortunately it seems to have hit its financial limit.

“The financial impact of the pandemic has hit us hard,” said a company statement. “The uncertainty about how travel will develop has also contributed to our having to make this decision after evaluating all possible alternatives.”

The news comes less than a fortnight after Spanish cruise line Pullmantur Cruises announced its own insolvency; reports suggest that all Pullmantur’s ships may need to be scrapped.

The larger cruise lines seem to be hanging on for now – although Royal Caribbean Cruises has reported a loss of US$1.4 billion for the first quarter of 2020 – but it seems likely that more smaller lines will follow Birka and Pullmantur if cruise travel continues to languish.

Industry-wide collaboration

It has also been announced that Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings are engaging in a collaborative effort to develop enhanced health and safety standards that could hopefully represent a lifeboat for the industry. The cruise lines have put together a hand-picked panel of experts from the public health, infectious disease, biosecurity, maritime operations and hospitality sectors to present recommendations that cruise lines can follow to improve standards and ensure that when operations do resume, the industry can take a proactive approach and hopefully be in a better shape to manage future health problems.

Initial recommendations are due by the end of August.

“This unprecedented disease requires us to develop unprecedented standards in health and safety,” said Richard Fain, Chair and Chief Executive of Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines. “Bringing aboard these respected experts to guide us forward demonstrates our commitment to protecting our guests, our crews and the communities we visit.”

The panel’s findings will, according to the cruise companies, be ‘open source’, so anybody within the cruise industry will be free to implement them.