Carnival Corporation has reported a net income of $1.4 billion, up from $1.2 billion in the same period last year. In it’s quarterly statement, the operator also announced that advance bookings for the first half of next year are ahead of the prior year at considerably higher prices. Since June, booking volumes for the first half of next year are lower than the prior year, as there is less inventory remaining for sale, at significantly higher prices.
Highlights during the third quarter, which included the grand opening of the Arison Maritime Center in Almere, Netherlands, named for Carnival Corporation & plc Chairman Micky Arison and his father, the late Ted Arison, who founded the company.
The 110,000-square-foot purpose built facility is a major expansion from the existing training centre that opened in 2009. The center will provide comprehensive safety and skills training for bridge and engineering officers. The facility includes four bridge and engine room simulators and is expected to train over 6,500 officers annually across the company’s 10 brands.
The company also signed a memorandum of agreement with shipbuilders Meyer Werft and Meyer Turku for the construction of three new 180,000-ton cruise ships. Two of the ships, to be built in Finland, will be added to the Carnival Cruise Line fleet in 2020 and 2022.
The third ship, to be constructed in Germany, will join the P&O Cruises UK fleet in 2020. All three vessels will be fully powered by Liquefied Natural Gas, the world’s cleanest burning fossil fuel. In conjunction with these new ship orders, the delivery dates for two previously contracted ships, one for AIDA Cruises and one for Costa Cruises, will shift from 2020 to 2021 to ensure a measured pace of capacity growth over the coming years.
Carnival Corporation & plc President and Chief Executive Officer Arnold Donald noted, “We delivered the strongest quarterly earnings in our company’s history affirming our ongoing efforts to expand consumer demand in excess of measured capacity increases and leverage our industry leading scale. Revenues during the peak summer season were bolstered by strong performances from both our North American and European brands and across all major deployments including the Caribbean, Alaska and Europe.”
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