Captain of Port Canaveral reacts to state's lawsuit against Biden administration, CDC
PORT CANAVERAL, Fla. - The Captain of the Port Canaveral Authority is happy about the lawsuit the state has filed against the Biden administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reopen the cruise industry.
Governor Ron DeSantis and the state’s Attorney General made an announcement from Port Miami on Thursday.
"It’s time to start making noise," Port Canaveral Authority Captain John Murray said. "I appreciate our Governor and Attorney General. It’s time to do something to get them to react because they seem to be failing to react in every way possible."
He said the cruise industry has suffered huge financial losses during the pandemic and had to lay off about 43 percent of its workers.
He's hoping the lawsuit will get rid of the CDC "no sail" order earlier than its current November 1st end date.
He expects reopening the industry to be slow, making sure everything reopens safely.
"Getting all of those logistics in place is going to take some time," Murray said. "So, you’re probably looking three to four months. One cruise line even indicated that after they get their first two to three ships up, they’d only be able to introduce about one ship per month just because of the amount of time it takes to get everything ready on that ship. It’s not going to happen immediately where we have every ship online. It just physically can’t happen."
The captain of the port and the governor both said it’s important to reopen the cruise industry now so that the cruise lines do not take their business to other countries.
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