Speaking on the company’s first quarter earnings call April 30, Royal Caribbean Group President and CEO Jason Liberty described what had been, at the start of the year, an exceptional setup for the company’s European deployments that then softened.

“If you kind of zoom out in the beginning of the year, demand from North Americans to go to Europe was really kind of off the charts,” Liberty said, “which is very much taken into our guidance.”

That momentum softened as the quarter progressed.

Escalating problems in the Middle East rattled consumer confidence in Mediterranean sailings, triggering a booking moderation.

CFO Naftali Holtz pointed to a compounding factor: transatlantic air travel costs spiked sharply in response to the disruption

“The cost of a flight was more than the cruise,” Liberty noted, adding that airfares surged by more than 40% at their peak before retreating to roughly 15% above normal levels.

Yet Liberty was clear that the picture had improved by the time of the call on Thursday April 30

“We are not turning the corner. We have turned the corner,” he said.

Bookings for Mediterranean itineraries have been rebounding in recent weeks, Liberty noted.

“There’s very little inventory left to sell for the quarter, and there’s still very little inventory to sell for the third quarter,” Liberty said.

The company also noted a offset to North American demand disruption: when U.S. travelers pulled back from European itineraries amid rising air costs, European source markets stepped in to fill the gap.

“We see an increase in European customers booking if there’s a slight decrease in U.S. North American customers,” said Royal Caribbean International CEO Michael Bayley.