Americas News
Carnival Sells More Ships, Restarts Operations in Germany
Carnival Corporation's evolving route out of the covid-19 impasse which has decimated demand for its products will see thirteen of its ships offloaded and ship delivery deferrals.
The sales represent an acceleration of vessels already slated to leave the company's fleet while five of the nine ships set for delivery in the 2020/21 financial year will not be delivered in that time slot.
The ships going represent around a 9% reduction in current capacity.
The move, according to Carnival president and chief executive, Arnold Donald, is "transitioning the fleet into a prolonged pause and right sizing our shoreside operations".
As the global cruise industry ground to a halt from the impact of the pandemic, many passengers and crew were left stranded.
The company said it had successfully returned "over 260,000 guests to their homes" and repatriated 77,000 of its crew "which is substantially all of its onboard workforce other than the safe manning team members".
Carnival has secured new credit lines and has put in place a variety of measures to bolster demand once its ships start sailing again.
Scaled back cruises with enhanced health and safety measures will start from German ports next month, the company said.
