Carnival Corp announced on Thursday that it lost over $2 billion during the latest quarter as the cruise lines of the company remained shut down due to the ongoing pandemic, but said that bookings for the upcoming year are running ahead of 2019’s pace.
Shares of the Miami-based company decreased by roughly 2.5%.
The cruise industry was one of the first victims of the global pandemic, as passengers and crew members tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and naval traffic often got shut down.
The industry had numerous dialogues with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) due to health requirements for resuming sailing in U.S. waters.
Arnold Donald, the company’s CEO, announced that they’ve long known that last year and even the beginning of 2021 would be “choppy, but the path and the trend is clear – there is pent-up demand” that is noticeable in booking numbers.
Carnival, which has nine cruising subsidiaries, announced that bookings in the March-May quarter increased by 45% over the previous quarter, and cumulative bookings for next year are ahead of the last pre-pandemic year.
The company aims to resume limited U.S. operations with trips beginning in July and August from Florida, Washington, and Texas.
Donald also mentioned in an interview that the majority of their passengers would be vaccinated. However, “there will be unvaccinated people on board that have to go through testing and other protocols,” including mask wearing and social distancing in certain areas.
Carnival predicts that they will have 42 ships, more than half of the parent company’s fleet sailing by the time November ends.
The company made it public that it lost $2.07 billion in the quarter that ended May 31 and lost over $14 billion since the pandemic began.
