Hurtigruten has announced a loss of about $195 million (160.6 million euros) for 2020 compared to a loss of about $20 million (17 million euros) the year before.

Hurtigruten cited the second wave of the Pandemic and new travel restrictions being imposed forcing the company to suspend most of its operations in the fourth quarter, only running two ships on a shortened route in Northern Norway from October, compared to five ships before.

At the end of the year, Hurtigruten reported liquidity of 72 million euros and that its average monthly cash burn was 13 million euros.

With the distribution of vaccines, the company stated that it is “of the opinion that the travel pattern will resume gradually in Q3 2021 and that we are back to a more normal state of operations in 2H 2021 We still see a net inflow of bookings for 2H of 2021. 2022 is developing very strongly and the booking levels are 43% higher compared to the same time last year for 2021.”

In October 2020 Hurtigruten initiated the sales process of its real-estate portfolio on Svalbard and said that it expects that a transaction to be announced in the near future

Hurtigruten operates 16 vessels, 11 providing expedition cruises along the Norwegian coast, seven of which operate under a 10-year contract with the Norwegian Ministry of Transportation, providing local transportation and freight services. Five ships are dedicated to expedition cruises in the Arctic and Antarctica, including the new hybrid vessels the Fridtjof Nansen and the Roald Amundsen.