Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise shipping group, said it has adequate funds in place to survive through 2021 even without revenues, while long term cumulative bookings are encouraging.

Chief Financial Officer David Bernstein in a statement: "We ended the year with $9.5 billion in cash and have the liquidity in place to sustain ourselves throughout 2021, even in a zero-revenue environment. While we raised capital mainly through debt this year, in the last few months we opportunistically strengthened our capital structure by raising $2.5 billion through at-the-market equity offering programs and by the early conversion of $1.5 billion of convertible debt.”

President and Chief Executive Officer Arnold Donald noted: "The booking trends that we have consistently experienced throughout this period affirm the strong fundamental demand for our brands which will facilitate our staggered resumption and support the long-term growth of our company."

"At December 20, 2020, cumulative advanced bookings for the second half of 2021 are within the historical range. Additionally, the cumulative advanced bookings for the first half of 2022 are ahead of 2019. Due to the pause in guest cruise operations in 2020, the company's future booking trends will be compared to 2019," the company said.

It believes the continued build in cumulative advanced bookings for this 12 month period ending May 2022 demonstrates the long-term demand for cruising. The company highlights this level of bookings was achieved with minimal advertising and marketing.

As of November 30, approximately 45 % of guests affected by the company's schedule changes have received enhanced future cruise credits (FCCs) and approximately 55% have requested refunds. There was no change compared to the end of the previous quarter.

Total customer deposits balance at November 30 was $2.2 billion, the majority of which are FCCs, compared to the total customer deposits balance of $2.4 billion at August 31. The decline in customer deposits is less than previous expectations.

At the end of November, the current portion of customer deposits was $1.9 billion with minimal bookings relating to first quarter of 2021 sailings. Approximately 60 % of bookings taken during the quarter ended November 30 for fiscal year 2021 were new bookings as opposed to FCCs re-bookings, despite minimal advertising or marketing, Carnival said.