Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (NYSE, OSE: RCL) and Rolls-Royce announced that they have reached a suitable and amicable resolution to the lawsuit regarding the Mermaid pod-propulsion system on Celebrity Cruises’ Millennium-class ships.
When they were first designed and implemented, podded propulsion was a significant technological advance over traditional shaft propulsion, but it experienced a number of technical issues in the early years of use. However, working together, Royal Caribbean and Rolls-Royce have been successful in improving the reliability of the design. Mermaid pods are installed on four Celebrity ships – Millennium, Summit, Infinity and Constellation.
The settlement will generate a net increase of approximately $65m in Other Income/(expense) in Royal Caribbean’s 2010 first quarter results.