Hurtigruten has made the decision to cancel its entire 2020-2021 Antarctica season.

“The situation is still fluid, and developments are unpredictable. There are still major hurdles to overcome. As of now, they do not show much promise to be resolved in time to explore Antarctica under our strict health and safety standards in the coming months,” said Daniel Skjeldam, CEO, in a letter post on the company’s website.

He said international travel restrictions and port closures are changing rapidly, often from day to day.

“There is currently a ban of cruise ship operations in many waters, and most flights to our departure ports in Argentina and Chile are cancelled,” he noted.

“This is why we have made the decision that Hurtigruten will not operate our Antarctica expedition cruises departing in October, November and December 2020, or in January, February and March 2021.

“This is a temporary setback. We will explore again. With this in mind, we would like to remind all guests booked for the Antarctica 20/21 Antarctica season with our highly flexible rebooking policy, that you may postpone your planned expedition and rebook your voyage to a similar cruise in the 21/22 season.”