Regent Seven Seas Cruises, the luxury cruise operator in the Prestige Cruise Holdings group, has reported a fall in third quarter net profit of $19.5 million from $27.0 million in the same period last year. However, the company less capacity in the latest quarter due to dry docking of a vessel, it said in a statement.

Commenting on the third quarter, the Company’s Chairman and CEO, Frank Del Rio, stated, “Regent’s luxury cruise experience continues to be very well received by both our guests and travel agency partners. We are thrilled with the record occupancy and yields we were able to obtain in the third quarter.”

“The Seven Seas Voyager’s drydock in September completes the ambitious $100 million plus upgrade program that we embarked upon nearly four years ago, and we believe the results are impressive. We continue to invest in our luxury fleet to provide our guests with the best possible vacation experience," he continued.

“Net Yield for the third quarter of 2011 was up 3.9%driven by higher pricing with Net Per Diem up 3.0% and occupancy increasing 0.8 percentage points. In the third quarter of 2011, we had a 6.8 percent reduction in capacity caused by a 17-day scheduled drydock for Seven Seas Voyager. There were no drydocks in the third quarter of 2010,” the company said.

Adjusted EBITDA was $40.6 million on revenue of $151.3 million for the third quarter of 2011, compared to Adjusted EBITDA of $47.5 million on revenue of $152.1 million for the third quarter of 2010.

Other key operating metrics for the third quarter of 2011 compared to the prior year are as follows:

Net Cruise Cost, excluding Fuel and Other expense, per APCD decreased 1.7%, to $278 in 2011 compared to $283 in 2010, mainly due to decreases in repair and maintenance expense and selling and administrative expense. Fuel expense increased 44.7%, or $3.0 million, reflecting higher prices. 

“Our economic hedging strategy was able to partially offset this increase, as we recognized a $1.3 million cash benefit on executed fuel hedge contracts during the quarter that offset 42.8% of the price increase. The realised gain of fuel derivatives was recorded in other income (expense) as these instruments do not qualify for hedge accounting.

Other expense was up $5.0 million primarily attributable to a 17-day scheduled drydock for the Seven Seas Voyager in 2011. There were no drydocks in the third quarter of 2010.