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Carnival group aims at staggered resumption of services – Donald

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 18 September 2020 18 September 2020

Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise shipping group, plans to continue the resumption of its services in a staggered manner, President and CEO Arnold Donald said in an interview.

Costa Crociere, the group’s Italian unit and AIDA Cruises in Germany are leading the process.

Looking forward, Donald said in a webcast interview by Travel Weekly in the UK that brands such as Holland America Line and Princess Cruises could restart operations either in the US or in another part of the world, depending on how the pandemic situation evolves.

The group has developed a number of scenarios that it will use in evaluating the next steps in the service restart process. In all of them, public health, compliance with local regulations and health and safety of passengers and crew are top priorities, he pointed out.

Moving to the group’s decision to increase the number of older ships it wants to remove from its fleet to 18, double the number first intended, Donald said before the Covid-19 pandemic, these ships had generated revenue.

In the present situation they do not, but incur significant expenses instead. As their earnings potential is lower than that of more efficient ships, the present crisis just accelerated their departure that would have happened in the near future anyway.

P&O Cruises extends standstill until early 2021

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 17 September 2020 17 September 2020

P&O Cruises, which is part of Carnival Corporation & plc, said it would extend pause in operations, with all sailings cancelled until early 2021.

Previously, the company had cancelled all departures up to 12 November plus some long cruises with departure date after that.

All Caribbean cruises are cancelled until the end of January 2021 and all cruises from and to Southampton are cancelled through February as well, the company said in a statement. Spring world cruises of Arcadia and Aurora had already bee cancelled earlier.

P&O Cruises president Paul Ludlow said: “With evolving restrictions on travel from the UK, unfortunately it is necessary to cancel these itineraries. These further cancellations vary according to ship as well as complexity and length of itineraries, advice and guidance regarding ports of call and current air availability for fly/cruises.”

“We are continuing to monitor the overall situation closely and will certainly reintroduce cruises should the opportunity arise and it is feasible to do so.”

Ludlow confirmed that the company is working with several of the “most brilliant minds in science as well as government at the highest level” on the approved and enhanced health protocols, which will be in place once the company resumes sailing.

He continued: “Whilst adherence to the protocols on board and ongoing vigilance will be critical, this will always be coupled with providing the well-deserved and memorable holidays for which we are known, with all the standout moments on board and experiences on shore. This is what we have always done and will continue to do.”

Ludlow concluded on an optimistic note saying: “We cannot wait for restrictions to ease, borders to open and for us to once again be able to set sail for a new beginning.”

Carnival Corporation files $1.0 billion at the market equity offering prospectus

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 15 September 2020 15 September 2020

Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise shipping group, said Carnival Corporation has filed a prospectus supplement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under which it may offer and sell shares of its common stock, through any of its sales agents having an aggregate offering price of up to $1.0 billion from time to time through an “at-the-market” equity offering programme.

Carnival Corporation, which is the Panama domiciled and US listed part of the group, said it expects to use the net proceeds from sales of shares under the ATM offering for general corporate purposes.

“The timing of any sales will depend on a variety of factors. Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, BofA Securities, Inc. and 12 other financial institutions are acting as sales agents under the ATM Offering. PJT Partners is serving as independent financial advisor to Carnival Corporation,” the company said.

Carnival doubles cull of inefficient ships

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 15 September 2020 15 September 2020

Carnival Corporation & plc, the Anglo-American cruise shipping group, said it would axe 18 ships from its fleet in a drive to boost efficiency, twice the figure it had intended to axe after the Covid-19 pandemic had emerged as a major concern for the cruise industry.

“The company now expects to dispose of 18 ships, eight of which have already left the fleet. In total, the 18 ships represent approximately 12% of pre-pause capacity and only three percent of operating income in 2019. The sale of less efficient ships will result in future operating expense efficiencies of approximately two percent per available lower berth day ("ALBD") and a reduction in fuel consumption of approximately one percent per ALBD,” the company said in a statement.

Carnival said it expects future capacity to be moderated by the phased re-entry of its ships, the removal of capacity from its fleet and delays in new ship deliveries. “Since the pause in guest operations, the company has accelerated the removal of ships in fiscal 2020 which were previously expected to be sold over the ensuing years,” it said.

Carnival group expects only two of the four ships originally scheduled for delivery in 2020, following the start of the pause, to be delivered prior to the end of fiscal 2020. These are presumably Iona of P&O Cruises and Costa Venezia of Costa Crociere, although Carnival did not state this.

Carnival currently expects only five of the nine ships originally scheduled for delivery in fiscal 2020 and 2021 to be delivered prior to the end of fiscal year 2021. The company currently expects nine cruise ships and two smaller expedition ships of the 13 ships originally scheduled for delivery prior to the end of fiscal year 2022 to be delivered by then

Based on the actions taken to date and the scheduled newbuild deliveries through 2022, the company's fleet will be more efficient with a roughly 13% larger average berth size and an average age of 12 years in 2022 versus 13 years, in each case as compared to 2019,” it said.

Carnival Corporation & plc reports deep third quarter loss, 55% of cancellations require cash refunds

Details: Written by Kari Reinikainen Kari Reinikainen; Category: Top Headlines Top Headlines; Published: 15 September 2020 15 September 2020

Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise shipping group, has reported a deep loss for the third quarter of its financial year and said that 55% of the passengers whose cruises had been canceled have requested cash refunds, the company said in a statement.

Net loss to three months to 31 August amounted to $2.9 billion, which included a $0.9 billion impairment charge that is a non- cash item.

Cash and cash equivalent items amounted to $8.2 billion at the end of August. Customer deposits declined to $2.4 billion from $2.9 billion at the end of May, which the company said it had expected. “As of August 31, 2020, the current portion of customer deposits was $2.1 billion with $0.1 billion relating to fourth quarter sailings. Approximately 55% of bookings taken during the quarter ending August 31, 2020 were new bookings, as opposed to FCC re-bookings, despite minimal advertising or marketing,’ Carnival said.

“While the company believes bookings in the first half of 2021 reflect expectations of the phased resumption of its guest cruise operations and anticipated itinerary changes, as of August 31, 2020, cumulative advanced bookings for the second half of 2021 capacity currently available for sale are at the higher end of the historical range and similar to where booking positions were in 2018 for the second half of 2019,” Carnival said.