Michael Bayley, president and CEO of Royal Caribbean International, said the company’s Healthy Sail Panel, in cooperation with Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, is making good progress.

“It would take many hours to go through all the details and we’re not ready still to talk about all of those details. Soon enough we will,” Bayley said, on a webinar for travel agents on Wednesday.

“Our hope is that we are going to reach a conclusion with our panel toward the end of August.

“Our intention then is to submit the complete, comprehensive plan (to the CDC),” he added.

Restarting, Bayley said it would be phased in, most likely starting with short Caribbean cruises to Perfect Day at CocoCay, the line’s private island.

Returning ships to service, Bayley said it would come down to trust: doing the right thing for guests, crew, employee and communities.

“We would never want to resume service unless we were fairly confident we could create an environment that was healthier and safer than the environment in which people were coming from,” he noted.

Bayley said the company had been doing consumer research since March.

“Consumer confidence in cruising is directly related to the infection rate of COVID in the community from which people are from,” he said.

New-to-cruise will potential has taken a step back, Bayley said.

“I believe we will see a huge resurgence of demand when this situation starts appearing in the rear-view mirror,” Bayley continued. “I’m optimistic about the future but I recognize we ware in a difficult period with a lot of work to do to regain confidence.”

On crew repatriation, Bayley said the company had repatriated approximately 98 percent of crew members.

Ships are being run by skeleton operation teams, ranging from 40 to 120 crew members depending on ship class, he said.