Carnival Corp. will accelerate a plan to remove cruise ships
from its fleets as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The company said in its Q2 earnings release that ships it
had intended to sell in the coming years will be taken out of service in the
2020 fiscal year. There are plans in place to dispose of six ships that are
expected to be removed from the fleet within 90 days, with more to come,
Carnival Corp. said.
The company revealed no specifics. The oldest ships for the
company’s largest brand, Carnival Cruise Line, are the eight Fantasy-class
vessels that were built in the 1990s.
Removing ships from the fleet is part of Carnival Corp.’s capacity-optimization
strategy for its return to operations. When it gets the OK to sail again, ships
will be deployed in a phased manner based on specific ships and brands, from “a
select number of easily accessible homeports.”
Carnival Corp. is also expecting delays in new ship
deliveries.
As far as bookings, Carnival Corp. has introduced a number
of incentives and flexibility to increase traveler confidence.
As of May 31, about half of guests whose original sailings
were canceled have asked for cash refunds, Carnival Corp. said.
Even with “substantially reduced marketing and selling
spend,” Carnival Corp. is seeing demand for new bookings for 2021. In the
second half of April through May, around two-thirds of 2021 bookings were new,
with the remaining coming from guests using future cruise credits.
Also as of May 31, Carnival had $2.6 billion in deposits on
the books. Of that, $121 million was for third-quarter sailings, and $353
million was for fourth-quarter sailings.
“The company expects any decline in the customer deposits
balance in the second half of 2020, all of which is expected to occur in the
third quarter, to be significantly less than the decline in the second quarter
of 2020,” Carnival Corp. said.
Carnival Corp. reported a net loss of $2.4 billion in the
second quarter. Revenue was $700 million, down from $4.8 billion in last year’s
second quarter.