Carnival Corp expects to do two things this summer that it has not done since the pandemic shut down cruising in early 2020: post a profit and return its entire fleet to full sailing.
The Arnold Donald-led owner on Tuesday posted a $1.88bn adjusted net loss for the fiscal first quarter starting 1 December, marking nine consecutive quarters in the deep red.
Those results compared to an adjusted deficit of $1.96bn for the same period last year.
These sombre figures translated into a loss per share of $1.66 for the first quarter, falling well short of analyst expectations of $0.89 loss per share.
The cruise major forecasted a second-quarter deficit as well but expects to be in the black — finally — for the third quarter ending 31 August as its entire fleet returns to full capacity.
“The company expects a profit for the third quarter of 2022,” Carnival said.
But Carnival may be keeping the champagne on ice for now as it still expects a loss for all of 2022.
Booking deposits were $3.7bn as cumulative advanced bookings for the first half of 2023 stay at the higher end of the historical range and at higher prices compared to 2019 sailings.
Carnival has $7.2bn in liquidity but $13.8bn in debt maturing between the end of this year and the end of 2025
New York-listed Carnival, which expects to shed three older vessels this year, also plans to boost its 75% of cruising capacity to 100% by this summer.
It currently has 64 out of 91 vessels sailing right now.
“We expect monthly adjusted Ebitda to turn positive by the beginning of our summer season as we build occupancy and return more ships to service,” chief executive Donald said in a statement.
But it still plans on facing headwinds related to the pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflict for some time.
“Events and conditions around the world, including war and other military actions, such as the current invasion of Ukraine, and other general concerns impacting the ability or desire of people to travel have and may lead to a decline in demand for cruises,” it said.
