Carnival Corporation posts first profit since pandemic

Carnival Corporation & plc CEO Josh Weinstein: "Both revenue and earnings significantly exceeded expectations this quarter."

For the first time since the resumption of guest cruise operations following the COVID-19 shutdown, Carnival Corporation’s U.S. GAAP net income turned positive in third quarter 2023, generating $1.07 billion. Adjusted net income of $1.18 billion exceeded the cruise giant’s June guidance range of $0.95 billion to $1.05 billion.

Other highlights included:

• Third quarter revenues hit an all-time high of $6.9 billion.
• Continued strength in close-in demand enabled the company to increase its net per diems guidance for full year 2023 by one percentage point to up approximately 7.0% compared to 2019 (in constant currency).
• Booking volumes during the third quarter and the month of September continued at significantly elevated levels.
• The company’s cumulative advanced booked position for full year 2024 is well above the high end of the historical range at higher prices (in constant currency) than 2023 levels.
• Total customer deposits reached a third quarter record of $6.3 billion.
• The company now expects fuel consumption per available lower berth day (“ALBD”) for full year 2023 to be nearly 16% than 2019, better than previously expected.
• The company reduced its debt by nearly $4 billion from its peak in the first quarter of 2023 and ended the third quarter with $5.7 billion of liquidity.

“We delivered over $1 billion to the bottom line with revenue reaching an all-time high” commented Carnival Corporation & plc CEO Josh Weinstein. “Both revenue and earnings significantly exceeded expectations this quarter enabling us to take up expectations for the year.”

“The outperformance was driven by strength in demand, with both our North America and Australia segment and Europe segment equally outperforming expectations,” continued Weinstein. “It is gratifying to see the power of our portfolio deliver, as our continental European brands have stepped up nicely. Our demand generation efforts are working across all regions, as we have consistently been achieving quarterly net per diems well in excess of 2019 levels, while closing the occupancy gap by 11 points over the course of the year.”

• All sorts of interesting items in the full earnings report, such as the number of passengers carried in the quarter (3.6 million) and fuel cost per metric ton consumed ($636). Download it HERE