Next year will be a transition year for Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, according to President and CEO Frank Del Rio, speaking on the company’s third quarter earnings call.

“In terms of how long it’s going to take to get the full fleet up and going, my best sense today, given all the uncertainties that we still have to work out with the CDC and when we can start, is six to nine months,” he said.

Noting 2021 as a transition year, Del Rio said he believes the company will be able to have our entire fleet up and running sometime in the latter half of 2021, so that 2022 becomes the first full year since 2019 that the company can operate the entire fleet for the full year.

“(2022) is the road to normalization. And then ’23 forward is normalization,” Del Rio said.

“So a lot of questions still to be answered. We still have travel restrictions around the world, travel bans in some cases. Airlines have got to get back up and running. Ports have got to open. But let’s look at just what’s happened in the last 2 weeks, 1.5 weeks,” he continued. “We have the framework from the CDC. That was step one. We are very encouraged by the CDC’s willingness to sit down and discuss the issues that we see with the order with us. We think that’s going to start very, very soon, and that’s just a great positive note.”