Disney CEO Chapek Admits Park Capacity Now Increased

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On today’s quarterly financial call, Disney CEO Bob Chapek gave specifics about park capacity in the Florida parks. Read on for details.

This afternoon, Disney leadership held their fourth quarter financial call for the fiscal year ending October 3.

Disney Q3 Financial Call: Grim Losses in Parks, Resorts and Experiences

Recently, Comcast/Universal held their third quarter financial call. Yes, they are on different calendars. You can read more about Universal earnings here.

Q&A Segment

During the question and answer portion of the call, Chapek was asked about loss of earnings related to Disneyland remaining closed.

Alexia, from JP Morgan Chase, asked, “You’ve made some real improvement in cutting your losses this quarter from the last quarter. I guess, is it feasible to continue to see further improvement in that segment without Disneyland opening?”

disneyland re-opening guidelines newsom — Photo credit: Disneyland

Chapek answered that given the efficiency of their parks operations, they have been able to increase capacity at the Florida parks to help offset the continued losses on the West coast.

Park Capacity

Chapek stated on the call that they have been able to implement a near 50% increase in capacity since the initial reopening.

Low crowds at the beginning of August 2020

Initially, the parks were operating at a maximum of 25% capacity. Chapek said that the 25% cap was their initial industrial engineering estimate to maintain 6 feet social distancing.

According to Chapek it is due to advances in their engineering, that they have been able to increase park capactiy to 35%.

Demand for the Parks

Chapek also highlighted that the demand for Disney parks has increased.

Earlier in the call, he had stated that he sees the ongoing demand for Disney’s parks as a sign that the public is confident in the measures they have implemented.

Chapek went on to say that the demand for the parks shows both a love for Disney’s parks and intellectual properties, as well as a vote of confidence for their handling of operations during the pandemic.

He stated that a larger number of guests are going through with their reservations, and that will help them offset the losses incurred by the continued closure of Disneyland and now Disneyland Paris.