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“Cruise passengers booking further ahead” – Carnival Corp.
Carnival Corporation has given an upbeat prediction for 2004 cruise bookings, revealing a trend towards passengers booking further ahead.
Carnival chairman and chief executive Micky Arison, unveiling record second quarter profits, said that advance booking levels were “significantly ahead” of last year’s levels on a capacity adjusted basis, with pricing showing continuing strength.
“Cruising is an increasingly popular vacation choice,” said Mr Arison. “More customers are booking further in advance resulting in a notable expansion in the booking curve for the second half of the year, which is also extending into 2005.”
Carnival Corp, the world’s largest cruise line group, more than doubled year on year profits in the second quarter of the year to achieve record net income of $332 million.
This was based on revenues of $2.3 billion for the three months ending 31 May, against $1.6 billion in revenues and net profits of $124 million in the equivalent period in 2003.
The US cruise giant saw half year net profits rise to $535 million on revenues of $4.2 billion against $272 million and $3.3 billion last year.
The figures include P&O Princess, which came under Carnival ownership in April, 2003. Mr Arison said he was “very pleased” with the progress and performance of the merger with P&O Princess.
He described the second quarter results as “remarkable” when set against a background of a 22% rise in capacity. Despite this the group achieved a 13% improvement in yields, he said.
The group saw three ships join the fleet in the three months in addition to four others introduced in the last seven months. A further eight new vessels are due for delivery between November 2004 and December 2006.
The group, which encompasses 12 brands including Cunard, Costa and Holland America Line, has a total fleet of 77 ships offering 128,000 berths.
Report by Phil Davies
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