Operator
Good morning, my name is Paul and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Viking's 4th Quarter 2025 Earnings Conference Call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. After the speaker's remarks, there will be a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. If you wish to remove yourself from the queue, please press star 2. Thank you. I would now like to turn the program to your host for today's conference, Vice President of Investor Relations, Carola Mangalini.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Viking's fourth quarter of full year 2025 Erdings Conference I am joined by Tor Hagen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, and Leah Talagtaq, President and Chief Financial Officer. Also available during the Q&A session is Lynn Ban, Executive Vice President of Finance. Before we get started, please note our cautionary statements regarding forward-looking information. During the call, management may discuss information that is forward-looking and involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, which may cause the actual results to be different than those expressed or implied. Please evaluate the forward-looking information in the context of these factors, which are detailed in today's press release, as well as in our filings with the SEC. The forward-looking statements are as of today, and we assume no obligation to update or supplement these statements. We may also refer to certain non-IFRS financial metrics, which are reconciled and described in our press release, posted on our Investor Relations website at ir.viking.com. Dora and Leah will provide a strategic overview of the company, a recap of our fourth quarter on full year results, and an update of the current booking environment. We will then open the call for your questions. To supplement today's call, we have prepared an earnings presentation that is also available on our Investor Relations website. With that, I am pleased to turn the call over to Tor.
Thank you, Carola. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. In our first full year as a public company, we've delivered very strong financial results, and I think we accomplished a great deal as our business continues to grow. If we turn to slide three, I'll begin by highlighting our fleet, which remains at the center of our strategy. 2025 was marked by a significant milestone, surpassing 100 ships. I believe that this accomplishment reflects our innovative approach and decades of thoughtful growth. From our humble beginnings in 1997, with just four river ships and two cell phones, we have steadily built a global business that now operates on all seven continents, spanning river, ocean, and expedition cruising. Today, our fleet consists of 89 river vessels, 12 ocean ships, and two expedition ships. All share the unique Scandinavian design and deliver the consistency and quality that our guests expect from Viking. As part of our ongoing fleet expansion, we will soon operate the world's first hydrogen-powered cruise ship, Capable of operating part of the time with zero emissions, something I'm particularly proud of. We believe that innovation should be practical and thoughtfully implemented. Also during the year, we continued to expand into new and exciting destinations. A highlight was the announcement of our new river itineraries in India, a region rich in history and cultural depth. At the same time, we increased our river fleet on the Nile and on the Mekong rivers. In parallel to all this, we strengthened and expanded partnerships across the arts, culture, and scientific institutions. These partnerships support brand awareness and local engagement among our target demographic. Moreover, in many cases, they also introduce opportunities to enhance a guest experience via unique privileged access and available through other travel providers. As you can see, we pursue growth with intention, expanding access, increasing choice, and enriching the cultural experiences that set Viking product apart. I'm very pleased that the milestones we achieved in 2025 supported an exceptional fleet and with it an exceptional financial performance. Regarding our fleet, you can see on the next two slides some of the features that make our ships such a strong driver of our results. I will start with Ocean on slide four. As it pertains to our Ocean fleet, we have one of the youngest fleets in the cruise industry. Our state-of-the-art, efficient design eliminates wasted space and extra weight on board, while maximizing gas comfort and optimizing fuel consumption. Moreover, our ocean ships with a sleek hull design and closed-loop scrubbers allow us to use more cost-efficient fuel. These attributes help us manage fuel costs in times of adversity. The layout and onboard offering of our ocean ship also allow us to operate with fewer crew without diminishing our high level of service. All these elements improve ship profitability. If we now focus on the river on slide 5, most of our river vessels are longships, a unique type of ship designed for European rivers. These ships include design features such as patented asymmetrical corridors and a square bow that allows for three full decks. With this design, we can accommodate up to 190 guests, which is more than the average European river vessels, improving their longship profitability. As it pertains to fuel costs, the river operation has a fixed price contract for a significant portion of the 2026 season. Within each product, our ships are indistinguishable to our guests. Potential guests shop by a tenderer, rather than a specific ship or age of ship, and it allows older ships to achieve similar yields, even when introducing new ships. On average and based on contribution to operations, the payback period for an ocean ship is about five to six years, and the payback period for a longship is about four to five years. Taken together, these characteristics show how the design, efficiency, and consistency of our ships translate directly into very good financial performance, which was particularly strong in 2025. Now turning to slide 6, you can see that we increased the capacity by 12% year over year. This reflects both the expansion of our fleet and the continued demand for our product. At the same time, our net yields grew 7.4%, demonstrating our ability to attract high quality demand, and to maintain pricing power. Together, these factors drew a 21.9% increase in total revenue, which reached a record of $6.5 billion in 2025. This strong top-line momentum translated into meaningful profitability. Our adjusted EBITDA reached almost $1.9 billion, dollars, an increase of 38.8% year over year, reflecting not only higher revenues, but also the benefits of scale, operational efficiency, and disciplined cost management. And lastly, our adjusted net income was $1.2 billion, 43.9% higher than last year. We are very proud of this performance, given the continued investments we are making to support our long-term growth now our 2025 performance is best understood and appreciated in the context of our long-standing track record of strong consistent results as you can see on slide 7 for 2025 every major financial metric outperform the compound annual growth rates shown on the slide which are all very good I believe that these trends reinforce that our 2025 results We're not driven by a single good year, but by sustained demand, long-term planning, disciplined execution, and a strong business model. Additionally, on the next slide, number eight, you can see in a measurable way the strength of our demand. Viking has consistently increased capacity by increasing yields and maintaining high occupancy levels. Together, these trends reflect the long-term resilience of our business and our ability to execute consistently. In this context, a strong financial performance is part of the story. It's also important to review additional metrics that validate our growth trajectory. These are on slide 9 and highlight the depth of our guest loyalty, our market position, and the strength of our balance sheet. In 2025, 54% of our guests sailed with Viking as repeat travelers, a number that continues to grow, and that is a clear sign of the trust they've placed in our brand. Moreover, more than half our bookings were made directly through Viking. This provides a meaningful long-term advantage in how we manage demand and engage with our guests. On top of this, we continue to hold the leading market share position with a 52% share of the North American outbound river market and a 27% share of the luxury ocean market. In addition to all this, we managed our balance sheet well. We ended the year with 45.8% return on invested capital and a net leverage ratio of 1.1 times. Overall, these results reflect our ability to achieve profitable growth while staying true to our principles of financial discipline and long-term value creation. Beyond the financial results, this consistency is also reflected in the recognition we continue to receive from our guests and the industry. On the next slide, number 10, we have highlighted some of the many accolades we have received during the year. These awards are particularly meaningful because they're based on guest feedback, reinforcing that our differentiated approach continues to resonate with our core demographic. In closing, I'd like to highlight that even as business continues to evolve, the principles that define biking and guide every decision we make are unchanged. And these principles are shown on slide 11. First, we remain unwavering in our commitment to obsess over our guests, making sure that we deliver an excellent travel experience at good value. Second, we continue to treat our employees as part of our extended family, recognizing that their dedication and care are central to everything we do. Third, we will continue to take a contrarian approach when we believe it serves the long-term interests of the business. And finally, we continue to do what we believe is right for the environment. With that, I will return to Leah to discuss our financials.
Thank you, Tor, and good morning, everyone. We are very pleased to report a strong fourth quarter capping a year of exceptional financial performance. On slide 13, you can see our key financial metrics. On a consolidated basis and for the fourth quarter, total revenue was $1.7 billion, increasing 27.8% year-over-year, driven by higher capacity, higher occupancy, and higher revenue per PCD. Adjusted gross margin was $1.1 billion, up 27.3% year-over-year, resulting in a net yield of $546, 7.7% higher than the fourth quarter of 2024. Vessel operating expenses excluding fuel per capacity PCD increased 2.6% this quarter compared to the same time last year. Adjusted EBITDA totaled $463 million, an improvement of $157 million, or 51.3% over the fourth quarter of 2024. I will highlight that our adjusted EBITDA margin reached 41.8% this quarter, representing an increase of 663 basis points compared to the same period last year. Net income for the fourth quarter of 2025 was $300 million compared to $104 million for the same period in 2024. The net income for the fourth quarter of 2024 includes a loss of $96 million from the revaluation of warrants issued by the company due to stock price appreciation. The fourth quarter of 2024 was the final quarter impacted by the warrant revaluation. And lastly, adjusted net income attributable to Viking Holdings Limited was $298 million and adjusted EPS was $0.67, 48.3% higher than the fourth quarter of 2024. Overall, we are very pleased and proud to close the year with a great fourth quarter delivering strong revenue growth and meaningful margin expansion. Now, I will briefly discuss our two reportable segments, River and Ocean, which are on slide 14. Unless noted, I will be referring to metrics for the full year ending December 31st. For the river segment, our capacity PCDs increased 6.5% year over year. The increase was driven by the addition of two vessels delivered in 2024 and six vessels delivered in 2025. During the 2025 season, these vessels operated across multiple regions of the the world, including Europe, Egypt, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Adjusted gross margin grew 16.2% year over year to $1.9 billion, and net yield was $578, up 8.4% year over year. Occupancy was 96% for the year. For ocean, capacity PCDs increased 17.9% year over year, driven by the delivery of the Viking Vela in December of 2024 and the addition of the Viking Vesta in July of 2025. Adjusted gross margin increased 30.9% year-over-year to almost $2 billion, and net yield was $572, up 9.7% compared to the previous year. Occupancy for the period was 95%. As Tor mentioned, these great results reflect the strong demand from our core consumer, the loyalty of our guests, the value of our premium products, and the dedication of our employees to deliver exceptional experiences across all seven continents. I will now shift our focus to some metrics related to the balance sheet. On slide 15, you can see that we have a strong liquidity position. As of December 31, 2025, We had total cash and cash equivalents of $3.8 billion and an undrawn revolver of $1 billion. Our net debt was $2.1 billion, and we finished the year with a net leverage ratio of 1.1 times. Also on slide 15, you will see our current bond maturity profile with all maturities falling in 2028 and beyond. In addition, as of December 31, 2025, five, deferred revenue totaled $4.6 billion. Taking these factors together, we believe that our liquidity position remains a clear source of strength supported by ample balance sheet flexibility and a long-dated bond maturity profile. This position gives us the confidence in our ability to support operations, invest in our growth, and pursue strategic opportunities as they arise. With this, I'd like to confirm our debt amortization for 2026. As of December 31, 2025, the scheduled principal payments were $397 million. From a committed capital expenditure perspective and for the full year 2026, the total expected committed SHIP capex is about $1.4 billion or $500 million net of financing. With that, I will hand it back to Tor to discuss our business outlook, including our booking curves.
Thanks, Leah. If we move to slide 17, you will see that 2026 is shaping up to be another great year as the demand for our core products continues to be very strong. As of February 15th, we were already 86% booked for the 2026 season. This is in line with the same time last year, while our capacity is increasing by 7%. We have $6 billion of advanced bookings, which is 13% higher than the 2025 season at the same point in time. Let's now review the booking curves, which are all as of February 15, 2026. On the next slide, you will see our curves for ocean cruises. This is slide 18. The yellow line shows the bookings for 2026. As you can see, we have sold $2.7 billion of advanced bookings, which is 16% higher than last year at the same point in time. Our operating capacity is up 9% in 2026, and we have already shown 87% of this capacity at very good rates. As of February 15th, advanced bookings per PCD were $787 compared to $746 at the same point in 2025. Our fleet expansion for Ocean continues to advance in a prudent and strategic manner. This year, we expect two new ocean ships to join the fleet, the Viking Mira during the second quarter and Viking Libra in the fourth quarter. It is important to note that this year's capacity growth comes on top of an 18% capacity increase in 2025. Taken together, the momentum underscores another strong year of demand for our ocean business. If we move to slide 19, you will see the Curves of River Cruises. Now, before we move on, I'd like to provide an update regarding our river new-build program. One of our shipyards informed us that they experienced temporary technological disruptions and resource availability issues, which affected certain production lines. As a result, the delivery timelines for eight of our longships have been adjusted. The two vessels originally scheduled for December 2025 will now be delivered in 2026. Additionally, as the yard works through the impacted workflow sequence, six ships originally scheduled for delivery in the first half of 26 will now be delivered later in that year. As a result, we have adjusted our 2026 capacity for river, which is now 6% higher than 2025. Last quarter, we reported a 10% increase. Importantly, the YARD has assured us that these disruptions are temporary, and they've already implemented corrective measures. Their teams are working to restore full technological functionality and are allocating resources to return to their regular scheduling cadence. We are in continuous communication with them, and we remain confident in their ability to deliver the vessels within the updated timeline. line. We believe that the impact of these changes to the advanced booking curves and our financial metrics for 2026 are immaterial. Moreover, while these adjustments shift certain delivery dates, they do not affect our long-term growth bands. We will now turn again attention to the booking curves. Advanced bookings for 2026 are shown by the yellow line, which follows a great trajectory. For rivers, we have already sold $2.8 billion, which is a very good number, 10% higher than last year. Overall, we have sold 85% of our operating capacity at very strong rates, averaging $906 per day, compared with $841 last year. These are very good trends for 2026, and they offer a clear illustration of the strength or demand. Our focus at this time is on selling the remaining capacity for the 2026 season while preparing for the start of the primary river cruising season, which begins in April. We will not be sharing information on future season yet. However, please note that both the 2027 and the 2028 seasons are open for sale. Now, Leah will add some color to our order book and capacity.
Thank you, Tor. Moving to slide 20, since our last earnings release, we entered into option agreements for two additional ocean ships to be delivered in 2034, bringing our total planned additions, including the options, to 16 new ocean ships over the next nine years. And we also entered into shipbuilding commitments for two additional expedition ships scheduled to be delivered in 2030 and 2031 we are very pleased to add these ships to our order book as demand for the viking expedition product remains very strong this is a product that truly resonates with our loyal guests who are eager to explore new destinations with viking by adding two more ships we can thoughtfully scale a category where our brand has been recognized for delivering exceptional travel experiences as it pertains to our 2026 capacity similar to past seasons more than 70 percent of the capacity from our core products in 2026 will be in europe before we close our prepared remarks and move into the questions i want to bring you up to date on the current developments in the middle east we are monitoring developments closely particularly as they relate to our operations in Egypt, which represent roughly 2% of our overall capacity, we are prepared to make adjustments in operations if this should become necessary from the point of view of the safety and comfort of our guests and crew. I will also highlight, as Tor already mentioned, that as it pertains to fuel, our river operation has fixed price contracts for a significant portion of the 2026 season, and our ocean fleet is designed with fuel efficiency in mind. While we continue to monitor these developments and their potential implications for our business, our thoughts are with all those impacted, and we hope for a swift de-escalation and a path towards lasting peace. With this, I conclude our prepared remarks. I'll now turn it back to the operator to take questions.
Operator
Thank you. At this time, we will be conducting a question and answer session. In the interest of time we ask that participants on today's call limit themselves to one question and one follow-up. If you would like to ask a question please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. Please hold while we poll questions. The first question today is coming from Steve Wojcinski from Stiefel. Steve, your line is live. Steve Wojcinski, your line is live. Please check your mute button.
Oh, sorry about that. Can you hear me now? All good? Yes, go ahead. Okay, thanks. Good morning, guys. So Tor or Leah, if we think about 2026, we can clearly see the curves, and we can see that the curves have essentially normalized versus where we were at this point last year. You're now coming off, I think it's four straight years of yield growth north of 7%. So, you know, I guess my question is, you know, if we think about 26, and look, I fully understand you don't give firm guidance, but, you know, based on the curves and advanced bookings and the fact you're, you know, you're almost 90% sold, seems like, you know, yield growth will still be very, you know, very solid this year somewhere, you know, in that five to, let's call it, 7% range. Am I, you know, am I kind of thinking about it the right way?
Hi, Steve. I think we put we will point you back to the curves which is what you've referenced so as of what we see today you know we do have 86% of our bookings currently sold with a 13% advanced booking growth with a 7% capacity PCD increase and what you can also see is that we have been able to maintain that cadence, you know, from 2017 to 2025. So I think the curves speak for themselves. And, you know, I don't know that we can say much more than that, but I think that your extrapolation, you know, makes sense from our point of view today.
Okay, gotcha. And then the second question, I want to go back to the current, you know, the uncertain geopolitical backdrop. up, you know, obviously a lot going on around the world, especially, you know, in the Middle East, which, you know, Leah, you, you know, you touched on in your prepared remarks, but maybe, maybe for Tor, you know, wondering if you could give us a reminder of how your business, you know, especially on the riverside has, you know, has performed when there has been uncertainty, you know, in that, you know, in that region, you know, trying, trying to understand if we should be expecting any, you know, any material change in demand, you know, in the near term until there is more clarity around what's going on in the Middle Maybe I could give a long term perspective on this, but as you know, I've been in this
business for a long time. And many, many years ago, events like this would have been creating tremors in many board But I think American customers, and particularly the type of customers that we have, are well educated in the world and they know where there are different places so I think what we've seen in the past is that we haven't really been significantly impacted you have a little blip when things happen and then they go back to normal and you can say here here things happen very rapidly in the Middle East situation, of course, but I can have, for example, you know, we had a group in Jordan earlier in the week, and there were 107 people, and we said, does anyone want to go home? And two of them said, we would like to go home. So people are very, fairly relaxed about all this. Of course, the travel warning that came out last night after this was recorded changes things a bit. Hopefully that goes away too. But, of course, it's a very limited part of our inventory, which is related to Egypt. And Egypt is far away from where the travels are. So, you know, of course, travel warnings are never nice, and maybe they're basic for something real. but people are not I think I guess some are really quite quite well versed and where where do bad things happen we don't minimize it but but I think things come and things go and we will deal with it of course always taking care of our guests so Steve I'd also like to add that you know as Tor mentioned our guests are fairly well educated they know where areas of conflict are in relative to where they will
be traveling to but also we are 86 percent sold for the 2026 season and that's another benefit of the curves um that we have the ability to um to kind of wait out or wait for consumer reaction to catch up and so for 26 we're still solidly booked um and then we have any we have time to address any reactions that the booking curve may have to current geopolitical events.
Okay, gotcha. Thanks for the color. Thanks, Tor. Thanks, Leah.
Operator
Thank you. The next question will be from Robin Farley from UBS. Robin, your line is live.
Great, thank you. Just looking at your, what low leverage you have ending the year, can you talk a little bit about, you know, whether at this point you might think about a dividend or something with, you know, one could argue is not, you the most efficient capital structure, given how low your leverage is.
Hi, Robin. Yeah, so, you know, I think events that are happening currently remind us why the company likes to have strong cash balances and why we like to be prudent with our balance sheet. But having said that, I think it's still a little bit premature for us to think about sherry purchases or dividends. It's not something that we would necessarily rule out, But we do have a strong order book, and we do have options that are quite far out. And so I think for the time being, that's not something that we would entertain, but not to be ruled out for the future.
Okay, thank you. And then for my follow-up, just on the addition of two more expedition ship orders, I feel like in the past I maybe remember Tor saying that, you know, expedition, while it's much higher priced than a lot of the other river and ocean product you have, that maybe there wasn't as much growth in demand there just because there's a lot of expedition capacity that's out there. So I'm just wondering if these two expedition ship orders kind of signal that maybe there's been an increase in demand on the expedition side that you're seeing over the long term, Or maybe these ships are going somewhere that are different than where your current expedition ships are.
I think we'd plan to deploy these vessels pretty much in the same itineraries as the current vessels. Of course, it has been a while since the first two were built. And when we look at booking curves, which we have also for expedition, We don't share it with you at this time, but you'll see that relatively the bookings there are very strong, of course since our supply has been limited, so you can almost read out that something needs to be done, and that's why I placed the order.
Operator
Thank you. The next question will be from Matthew Boss from J.P. Morgan. Matthew, your line is live. Thanks, and congrats on another nice quarter.
Thank you. So could you elaborate on the acceleration in advanced bookings per PCD to 6% growth relative to five and a half three months back? Maybe just within that, what are you seeing from repeat guests relative to new-to-brand customers?
Hi, Matt. I hope you're doing well. I think, You know, obviously the price, you know, going from 5.5% to 6% is a good indication of how demand is looking for us. We are 86% sold, so we have a little bit more to go. I mean, our goal is always to balance both price and our guest experience, feeling like they got, you know, good value for the experience they received. So I think we still aim for that mid-single-digit yield growth. That's something that, you know, is still a focus for us for 2026. As it relates to Nutabran and past passengers, we do have a slide in the deck. Our past guest repeat rate for 2025 season slightly ticked up, about 1%. So we're still seeing a good balance between the two. So we're pleased with that.
Great. And then maybe, Leah, could you speak to the strength in ocean pricing that you're seeing, advanced bookings per PCD accelerated by 100 basis points versus three months ago, and just any change in demand momentum at all that you're seeing for your European sailings today?
Sure. So for the ocean bookings, I think, you know, we do have dynamic pricing. We react to what the demand and the consumer interest is. So what you see there is in response to that. but it remains the same answer which is that we want to be thoughtful about pricing increases our goal is the mid single digit increases in yields year over year and really it's about having the value proposition for our guests because of that repeat the importance for us to make sure that the guests don't see this as a one-off travel experience for them rather it's something that they want to continue to do as they think about their future journeys great color best of luck thank you thank you the next question will be from Connor
Cunningham from Mellius research Connor your line is live hi everyone thank you maybe to keep along that that line of questioning I was hoping to get your perspective on occupancy versus pricing going forward I mean your occupancy is basically at all-time highs, I think, now. So just how do you approach the strategy going forward in general? And, you know, do you still see upside to occupancy overall? Or, I mean, I think 100% is pretty difficult. Just any thoughts there would be helpful.
Yeah, that's exactly right. So unlike the other ocean cruises where they have triples or more than two people, we only have two people per cabin. So our occupancy will never be more than 100%. And with, you know, single supplements or people who travel singly, that kind of brings down our occupancy, you know, one to two percentage points. So I think with our goal, we see 95% occupancy that's essentially sold out. So our strategy is to sell out the ships and manage the price increases, as we've discussed, which is really creating value for guests, making sure that they find the value proposition attractive.
Okay, helpful. And then I just want to ring fence the two issues that you flagged a little bit here. Just on the delivery delays on the river ships, is there any reaccommodation expenses associated with that that we need to be aware of? I mean, just on the 2% Egypt exposure that you talked about, is that a good proxy for its overall contribution to profitability as well?
Yeah, I'm not entirely sure I understand your question on the riverships, but let me try. Of course, it's a delay, so the revenue will be impacted this year. Not so much. It will be impacted. And, of course, the operating costs offset that. There may be some other offsets we can have. It shouldn't have happened, but things happen. And I think we're very pleased to say that from all we can see, it's now entirely under control, and the ships should be delivered as now indicated, and the 2027 deliveries should not be impacted at all. I know whether that deals to the question at all or not.
Can I also say that, you know, sorry, on the delay, and then I'll turn it back over to you, Tor, on Egypt, but on the delay, you know, that's one of the benefits of our identical vassals, particularly in river. So our guests book based on itinerary, not necessarily what's new and coming online. and so we were able to accommodate some of them to other ships that are traveling in the same itinerary that they had originally booked so there are minimal if any reaccommodation expenses and then tour I'll turn it back to you for Egypt's commentary no you handled it so well why don't you continue okay so for with respect to Egypt you know in the prepared remarks we did say that we were ready to make any adjustments in case there were you know things like this updated travel advisory so with respect to Egypt we're in the process of notifying guests that we are temporarily pausing Egypt itineraries through March 31 2026 it's really important for us that our guests feel safe and our crew feel safe and I think that's the basis from which the brand loyalty really That's the foundation of it. This represents about 40 voyages with less than 3,000 guests impacted. So as a reminder, Egypt is only 3% of our total capacity. So we do not see this as a material impact to the business.
Operator
Sure. The next question will be from James Hardiman from Citi. James, your line is live.
Hey, good morning. Just as a clarification, I think you already answered this effectively, but the river yard issues, it doesn't seem like that's impacting the booking curves at all. If so, let me know. But then, anything that you'd be willing to share in terms of the monthly booking trends past 25, right, past the end of the quarter? I think it was a year ago where you first spoke to some softness in February. We've now lapped that. Maybe any update there would be great.
Okay, so as far as the booking curves that you, you know, I think we point back to the curves. We had a strong first couple of months of the wave season, and you see that with the 86% sold and also the pricing increases that we've presented today. And sorry, there was a second part to your question that I think I might have missed. Can you repeat it?
Just the river yard delays, if that impacted that curve in any meaningful way.
Yeah, and so I point back to the answer, which is it does not really affect the curves in the sense that because the ships are identical, we were able to reaccommodate most of the guests who were impacted to continue sailing in the itineraries they had originally booked. So they're not really, you know, they're shopping based on itinerary and not necessarily vintage of ship.
And then, you know, obviously it's too early to have any quantification on 2027. But I just wanted to hear any color on those Indian river itineraries, just given that they are what's going to be new for next year. You know, any thoughts on initial demand trends there? How should we be thinking about that market? How does that pricing compare? I know when you got into Egypt, that was a nice, I think it was a nice pricing sort of benefit that showed up in some of these curves. But any thoughts on India as we look to next year?
Sure. So India, it was first open to our past passengers, and it was overwhelmingly supported by them. So we were sold out, you know, a few weeks, a couple weeks, three weeks, as soon as it opened. And it is yielding at higher rates, similar to how Egypt is pricing also is higher.
Lynn, do you have any additional color you'd like to share? No, I agree. I mean, I think, you know, our past guest support and loyalty is great. It's reflected in new itineraries when we open for sale, and that was no different with India.
Operator
Thanks. Thank you. The next question will be from Andrew DeDora from Bank of America. Andrew, your line is live.
Hey, good morning, everyone. So the 86% book for this year, obviously, very strong, seems fairly consistent with where you've been the last several years. Maybe if I nitpick, maybe ask about the 14% that is not sold. Just curious of what's not sold. What's the type of product or type of itinerary that is left to sell? Just kind of want to get a sense of what makes up that remaining 14%. You know, is that a typically come at a premium at a discount, kind of yield neutral? Just curious what's left out there.
Sure. Hi, Andrew. I think, you know, given we're sitting here in early March or the cursor as of mid-February, what is generally remaining to sell is the fourth quarter. So that is our quote-unquote low season. Those guests do book closer in. And then we do have probably some remaining cabins in the third quarter, et cetera. But a majority of that 14% is the fourth quarter, and that's similar year over year.
Got it. And then I appreciate the commentary on fuel. I know it's a small part of your cost structure. But I guess, you know, Brent is up, you know, 35% or so this year. or just your fuel costs in 25 versus 24 were pretty flattish. I think that I would expect that to change this year. Any color you can give just in terms of that $20-plus move in crude, what kind of the like-for-like EBITDA impact could be on the business? Just want to hone in on that a little bit more.
So, I mean, I think at the end of the day, we took a lot of time to design our ships to be fuel efficient. And so for oceans, we do use heavy fuel. Obviously, right now, you know, the market is where it is. But I think the team has done a really good job of managing through times like this. We are monitoring, you know, where fuel prices are, and we will act accordingly. For rivers, we have entered into fixed price contracts for a significant portion of the 26th season.
Operator
Thank you. The next question will be from David Katz from Jefferies. David, your line is live.
Hi, good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats on the quarter and appreciate all the details so far. What I wanted to ask is, you know, that you obviously continue to, you know, put up outsized growth and project outside growth with further capacity. How do you think about the depth of the market that you are, you know, growing into, right? Are there, you know, new to cruise customers that you're getting to explore? Are your existing customers sailing more? You know, how do you think about a, say, total addressable market, I suppose, is the essence of the question.
Yeah, I think maybe Tor can handle that here. I think maybe even we have been a bit surprised with the fantastic demand we've had for our product, both the rivers and the ocean but I think when we analyze it and look at where our guests come from we see that many of our new to brand guests both on the rivers and on the oceans come from the established ocean cruise lines and and they are really guests who are not so happy with being on huge ships with lots of screaming kids you know our policy on on kids and casinos and the like so they graduated from being on on the noisy entertainment palaces to being on more calm peaceful places where they can enjoy their books and themselves so i think i think we really found a i know what we knew what we did when we designed it, but I think we underestimated to being on these other ships. Of course, they're great for kids and they're great for money making and so forth, don't get me wrong, but I think it's a good source of business for us, and of course you have seen that some of the other people have started to come in our slipstream to see what they can do in the same field too so i think i think we haven't tried to qualify to quantify the total addressable market but we have all confidence that the order book will be relatively easy to fill so that's all i can say yeah and i'd like to add to that please go ahead
Yeah, and, you know, we have a huge brand awareness when it comes to river cruising, and that is also another avenue through which we expand into the total addressable market of people who would not ordinarily contemplate a cruise. And when they join Viking River Cruise, then they see that there is a different way to travel, And that then creates a feeder into that addressable market for the other products that we have in our portfolio. So it's a combination of our thoughtfully planned ocean expedition, but also this enormous brand value that we have by being over half the market share in River.
Understood. And if I may just follow up quickly, and I am past it, but I appreciate the screaming kid comment. With respect to other, you know, entries into the river cruising market, are you comfortable and how should we, you know, be comfortable that there's enough room in that marketplace, you know, for some new entrants to add some ships and that that's not going to have an impact on you?
I suspect all entries into markets will have some impact, but the question will be a negative impact or a positive impact. You know, the negatives we all know about, so positively, you know, it creates even more buzz around the whole river cruise concept. So I look forward to seeing the advertising when they say, are you tired of being on our big ocean-going ships? Try one of our river ships. That's a wonderful, you know, let's see what the advertising will sell. So I think we are, and we have a 29-year head start on them, so we shouldn't really be unduly worried about it, I would say. And I think it's similar on the ocean side, where you see that others are starting to copy us there, too, even though they've been in the business for 50 years. So I think we've done something right, but it means we shouldn't rest on our laurels, but we should build on them for sure.
Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Operator
Thank you. The next question will be from Stephen Grambling from Morgan Stanley. Stephen, your line is live.
Hey, thank you. Over the past three years, you've had gross margin expansion. We'd love to just get your thoughts on some of the drivers of that and any considerations on how that may evolve not only in 2026, but beyond.
Sure. I mean, I think, you know, we have approached the business with the guest first and, you know, what all Taurus has mentioned even in his earlier remarks. And with that, you know, we've been able to build our brand, deliver an excellent product, which has led to capacity increases, yield increases, and then we've been prudent with carbon expense. So all those things combined have led to the margin expansion you see today. I mean, of course, our hope is that we continue that into the future. You know, the management team has done a great job, and so the goal is to continue that.
And sorry, I just want to make sure I zoom in on specifically gross margin rate, so thinking about the difference between net yield and gross pricing, right? your net yield or your net pricing has been above gross pricing, you know, normally we would think of that as being things like commissions, transportation, other, anything in there that's, you know, permanent that should be driving it and any impact from fuel prices going up that could influence how that flow through could look in the year ahead?
Sure. I mean, I think, you know, obviously we try to be balanced when we approach pricing and cost. And so as the team, you know, works through those things, we do our best to ensure there is margin expansion. Obviously, you know, historical performance is no promise for the future, but that's something that we focus on. I think at the end of the day, you know, we are getting the benefit of both price and being prudent with cost.
Operator
Okay. Thank you. Thank you. The next question will be from Brand Montour from Barclays. Brant, your line is live.
Hi, thanks, everybody. So another question on cost, you know, the marketing and sales line, you guys did get a lot of leverage on that line in 25. You didn't get a lot of leverage on that line in 24. You know, another year of substantial capacity growth, and you guys are now going to be spending, I assume, well over a billion dollars on marketing sales. Maybe you could take us a bit under the hood here and just sort of talk through, you know, the leverage that you think you can get if you can get that this year and what channels you might be expanding to to sort of scale with this growing business.
I'm going to – I think I understood the question, but I'll give it a try. So, you know, we do feel that we can leverage and scale SG&A. We have, you know, we are, we see ourselves not just a cruise operator, but also as a marketing company. And as we think about the tools available in the market now with respect to AI and machine learning, you know, there are certainly multiple areas of the business that we can have a broader digital transformation strategy that would help with the cost. So, you know, we feel that there could be some scaling or leverage off of our SG&A as capacity increases.
Yeah, could I make a comment? Go ahead, please. Maybe I can make another comment in that regard. You know, the way the accounting work, the marketing expenses are expense as incurred. But of course, we are booking so far in advance. So as we grow, it means a large portion of our marketing expense this year is related to 2027 operations. So as we grow, you can say a disproportionate amount of the expenses are charged to the current year rather than to the next year, but to which I really are attributed. So, that is something one should take into account when one evaluates these expenses too. That's a comment.
No, that's great, Claude. I think what I was trying to get to is the G&A per capacity unit. That's the line that I think a lot of us focus on. You know, that was down year over year in 2025, which is great. And so the question is, can you keep that line, that metric, muted or sort of well below yield growth for the next year or two years?
We don't guide, but that is something that is certainly in our consideration set, and we will try to leverage SG&A.
Operator
Thank you. And the final question today will be from Patrick Scholes from Truist Securities. Patrick, your line is live.
Thank you for taking my question. You talked about 86% sold for this year. My question around that is how much of that is, we would say, Loctite nonrefundable at this point? Thank you.
So generally speaking, our guests not only book in advance, but they also pay in advance. And what we've found is that once they are booked and paid, there's generally very low cancellation rates. And we also encourage that by the fact that we engage them prior to their trip. So we will send them language lessons, things to look forward to, to really make sure that they're looking forward to the trip. So I would say that, you know, and you can see this in prior bookings as well and how it developed into results, results, that once they are booked and paid, the booking becomes generally very sticky. And that is why we feel that showing these booking curves are the best factual indication of what the current season looks like.
Okay, my follow-up on that would be let's just hypothetically and hope it doesn't happen that things did really continue to escalate. There would be, you know, hypothetically fear of travel, but your ships were or your vessels were still sailing. Could those who have booked still or what percent could still cancel with refund at this point down the road?
Sure. So our cancellation policy is generally starts to kick in around 90 days prior to sailing. but having said that you know the what we've seen in historical patterns is that our guests are quite first in reading a map and so they can see where the areas of conflicts are and where they're planning to travel and they also trust the brand meaning that we will not operate if we feel that it would be unsafe for our guests and our crew and we've seen that in prior where they will either hold and wait to for biking to make announcements or they will maybe just push it out a little bit later but generally speaking the booking curves are pretty sticky and and so another part of the equation here also is that you know with being 86 percent sold any cancellations we still have time to resell that inventory okay thank you for the detail on that more said sure thank you this does conclude today's Q&A session I will now turn the conference back over to Tar Hagen Vikings chairman and CEO for closing remarks well I want to thank everyone for joining us today on this
call I also thank you for your support and interest in Viking they wish you a Have a great day, have a nice one.
