Carnival Corporation to Operate up to 75% of Fleet Capacity by End of 2021
World's largest cruise company continues building momentum for restarting cruise vacations with announced sailings to date on 54 ships through end of 2021 across eight of its world-leading cruise line brands – Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard and P&O Cruises (UK)
MIAMI, July 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK), the world's largest cruise company, today announced that it expects to resume guest cruise operations with 65% of its total fleet capacity by the end of 2021 across eight of its world-leading cruise line brands. Additionally, Carnival Cruise Line has announced plans that envision the brand's entire fleet returning to service by the end of 2021, which would further increase Carnival Corporation's total operating capacity to nearly 75% by the end of the year.
Eight of the company's nine brands – AIDA Cruises, Carnival Cruise Line, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Seabourn – have announced plans to resume guest operations on 54 ships to date through the end of 2021, with nearly half of the capacity represented by ships homeported in the U.S. In addition to those ships previously announced by the company's brands, Carnival Cruise Line's intent to return to full fleet service in 2021 would add another nine vessels, totaling 63 ships to date that are expected to resume guest operations this year. Further brand restart announcements are expected in coming weeks, including resumption plans for more ships and itineraries for 2021.
Collectively, the brands are continuing to resume operations from ports around the world using a gradual, phased-in approach, including sailings in the U.S., Caribbean, Europe and Mediterranean, along with itineraries planned in Central America and to Antarctica, among others. The cruises include enhanced health protocols developed in conjunction with government and health authorities, and informed by guidance from the company's public health, epidemiological and policy experts.
The following summarizes Carnival Corporation's brand restart announcements to date through the end of 2021.
North America Brands:
Europe & Asia Brands:
The additional voyages build on recent restarts from five of the company's brands, including AIDA Cruises and Costa Cruises, which have been sailing in Europe since March and May, respectively, as well as its P&O Cruises brand in the UK. Most recently, the company's Carnival Cruise Line brand resumed in early July from the U.S. along with its Seabourn brand, which restarted earlier this month in the Mediterranean and the Caribbean.
"With strong ongoing demand for cruising, we look forward to serving our guests with additional ships announced across eight of our brands and nearly three-quarters of our fleet capacity returning by the end of this year, marking an important milestone for our company and all those who rely on the strong economic impacts generated by the global cruise industry," said Roger Frizzell, chief communications officer for Carnival Corporation.
Frizzell added: "For our entire company, our highest responsibility and top priority is always compliance, environmental protection, and the health, safety and well-being of our guests, our shipboard and shoreside employees, and the communities we visit. Our ongoing restart effort closely reflects those priorities, as we continue to work together across the industry and with partners around the world to resume cruising in the best interest of public health."
In working with global and national health authorities and medical experts, as well as authorities in destination countries, the company's brands have developed a comprehensive set of health and safety protocols for protection and mitigation across the entire cruise experience for its initial cruises. This includes cross-industry learnings and best practices based on the proven health and safety record of industrywide sailings, and input from top science and health experts and health authorities.
Cautionary Note Concerning Factors That May Affect Future Results
Some of the statements, estimates or projections contained in this document are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions with respect to us, including some statements concerning our resuming of cruise operations in the US, Caribbean and Europe. These statements are intended to qualify for the safe harbors from liability provided by Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. All statements other than statements of historical facts are statements that could be deemed forward-looking. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts and projections about our business and the industry in which we operate and the beliefs and assumptions of our management. We have tried, whenever possible, to identify these statements by using words like "will," "may," "could," "should," "would," "believe," "depends," "expect," "goal," "anticipate," "forecast," "project," "future," "intend," "plan," "estimate," "target," "indicate," "outlook," and similar expressions of future intent or the negative of such terms.
Because forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, there are many factors that could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our forward-looking statements. This note contains important cautionary statements of the known factors that we consider could materially affect the accuracy of our forward-looking statements and adversely affect our resuming of risk operations. Such risks, uncertainties and factors include the risk factors discussed in Item 1A of our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").
Forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as a prediction of actual results. Subject to any continuing obligations under applicable law or any relevant stock exchange rules, we expressly disclaim any obligation to disseminate, after the date of this document, any updates or revisions to any such forward-looking statements to reflect any change in expectations or events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statements are based.
About Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation & plc is one of the world's largest leisure travel companies with a portfolio of nine of the world's leading cruise lines sailing to all seven continents. With operations in North America, Australia, Europe and Asia, its portfolio features Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard.
Additional information can be found on www.carnivalcorp.com, www.carnival.com, www.princess.com, www.hollandamerica.com, www.seabourn.com, www.pocruises.com.au, www.costacruise.com, www.aida.de, www.pocruises.com and www.cunard.com.
CONTACT: Roger Frizzell, Carnival Corporation, rfrizzell@carnival.com, (305) 406-7862; Mike Flanagan, LDWW, mike@ldww.co, (727) 452-4538