Carnival looks to return full fleet by spring

US cruise ship operator Carnival is aiming to have its full fleet return to service by next spring, as the cruise sector recovers from an industry-wide pause prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Carnival said it projects about 65pc of its ships returning to operation by 1 January 2022 and all vessels to have resumed cruises by the spring of 2022, right before peak cruise season begins in the summer.

"The current environment, while choppy, has improved dramatically since last summer, and it should improve even further by next summer if the current trend of vaccine rollouts and advancements in therapies continues," Carnival chief executive Arnold Donald said on an earnings call.

Carnival has returned to partial operations in the US since July after being shut down since March 2020 to combat the Covid-19 pandemic. Cruises in Asia and Europe returned earlier in the summer.

There are 37 ships slated to restart between October 2021 and June 2022 on its main brand, Carnival Cruise Line, and its subsidiaries that call at ports worldwide. Most of the remaining sidelined vessels, 21 in total, will return to service by the end of this year, with the rest to restart next year. Carnival says it has 95 ships in its fleet, but that number includes some vessels set to be delivered through next June.

Carnival said it is seeing higher booking trends for next summer compared with 2019 pre-pandemic levels, indicating higher demand for its cruises. The company declined to provide details regarding cruise bookings for next summer.

Carnival reported a $2.83bn loss for the third quarter of its 2021 fiscal year ended 31 August, a slight narrowing from its $2.85bn loss reported for the same quarter last year.

By Luis Gronda