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Carnival thanks agents after announcing record earnings
Carnival Corporation’s adjusted net income hit $3 billion this year, $200 million more than in 2017, making it a record-breaking year.
Revenues for 2018 were $18.9 billion, $1.4 billion higher than in 2017. Net cruise revenue was up 5%, boosting the cruise line’s yield to an historic high.
President and chief executive Arnold Donald said: "We delivered strong fourth quarter earnings and record adjusted fourth quarter earnings to top off a record-breaking year.
"I thank our 120,000 team members around the globe who encountered multiple headwinds and still delivered for our shareholders a more than doubling of return on invested capital in just five years, as well as our valued travel agent partners whose strong support enabled these record results."
Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter was $492 million compared to $452 million in the same three months of 2017.
Looking ahead to 2019, advance bookings are ‘considerably ahead’ of last year at similar prices, said Carnival. Even with more capacity, following the launch of Holland America Line’s Nieuw Statendam last month, there is less inventory remaining to sell than at the same time last year, it added.
"Based on continued strength in underlying fundamentals, we are poised to deliver another year of strong revenue and earnings growth, with booking volumes running significantly ahead of our higher capacity growth and net revenue yields expected to exceed last year’s record levels (constant currency). We remain committed to driving demand in excess of measured capacity growth to continue the momentum into 2019 and beyond," added Donald.
Based on current booking trends, the company expects full year 2019 constant currency net cruise revenues to be up approximately 5.5%, with capacity growth of 4.6%, and net revenue yields in constant currency expected to be up approximately 1%.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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