Cruise lines offloaded a record number of ships during the pandemic, but that trend seems to be over.
After a record 18 vessels were sold to shipbreakers last year, not one has been sold for scrap this year, according to the latest edition of the Cruise Secondhand Market Report by Cruise Industry News.
Thirty-eight ships have been sold to shipbreakers since 2020. In 2019, one ship was sold for scrap.
The average age of ships scrapped from 2020 to 2022 was 37 years old, according to the report. Ships scrapped from the previous three-year period averaged 43 years of age.
Carnival Cruise Line scrapped six ships in the first three years of the pandemic, all of them Fantasy-class ships.