Germany's Phoenix Reisen has sold its oldest cruiseship to Egyptian hoteliers for conversion into a floating resort hotel.
The Bonn-based operator has tied up a deal to sell the 28,500-gt Albatros (built 1973) to the Kamal Abou Aly-led Pickalbatros Hotel chain, which operates 15 resort hotels in the Egyptian holiday destinations of Hurghada, Sahl Hasheen, Sharm El Sheikh and Marsa Alam.
Michael Schulze, Phoenix’s director of sea travel, said that the company had hoped to celebrate the 50 th birthday of the Albatros in 2023 with a series of anniversary cruises and other special events.
But, he said, the impact of the coronavirus has forced a change of plans as the company has had to keep an eye on profitability.
“This step was really not easy for us! But the running costs with the associated collapse in sales ultimately left us no other choice,” Schulze said in a written statement announcing the sale.
“We are very sad about it.”
Schulze noted that Phoenix would still be able to book customers on the ship in its hotel role via its land tour division that has had a longstanding partnership with the hotel chain for more than 25 years.
The sale of the Albatros leaves Phoenix with a fleet of three mid-sized cruiseships. A fourth is chartered in on a seasonal basis. All have been idle since the cruise industry was shut down by Covid-19 in the early part of this year.
The company also controls a fleet of 15 European river cruiseships, many of which resumed operating in June. Schulze said the river cruise division has been performing well.
Last of three
The Albatros, as Royal Viking Sea, was the last of three identical sisterships built by Wartsila in Finland for the Royal Viking Line, an upmarket cruise company formed by Norwegian shipowners Bergenske Dampskibsselskab, Nordenfjeldske Dampskibsselskab, and AF Klaveness & Co.
Each of the partners owned one of the ships, but a decade later sold them together with the operating company to Norwegian cruise mogul Knut Kloster’s Norwegian Cruise Line.
They were considered to be at the top of the cruiseship chain until they were sold off to other operators in the early 1990s.
The two other sisterships, Royal Viking Star (built 1972) and Royal Viking Sea (built 1973) ended up in the Fleet of Fred Olsen Cruises as the Black Watch and Boudicca.
Like the Albatros, these two ships were extensively rebuilt and fitted with new engines later in their careers,
They too became pandemic victims , being sold in September to Turkish interests for future use as accommodations ships after Fred Olsen Cruises was able to acquire much younger, larger ships at bargain prices.
