Aurora to double fleet

AURORA Expeditions yesterday confirmed an order for a second newbuild, with the additional vessel expected to join the new Greg Mor mer in time for the 2020/21 cruise season.

The expansion was revealed at the Travel IQ conference in Sydney by Aurora CEO Rob Halfpenny, who noted the new Aurora ship would be one of 28 new expedition vessels currently on order for delivery to global cruise lines by 2022.

He said there had been such strong interest in the Greg Mor mer that the season for next year was close to selling out.

Aurora’s current Polar Pioneer is ageing and will be phased out after the 2018/19 season.

Halfpenny said the yet-to-benamed additional ship would have a similar configuration to the 160-passenger Greg Mor mer which has been purpose designed for polar expedition cruising.

He outlined ambitious growth plans for Aurora, with the second ship seeing planned annual TTV of $75 million over the next few years - a roughly seven-fold increase from the company’s current revenue levels.