Carnival PLC (LSE:CCL), the cruises operator, posted an eye-watering first-quarter loss of US$1,88mln but said it expects to return to profitability this summer.
Since the middle of January, the company has seen an improving trend in weekly booking volumes for future sailings and recent weekly booking volumes have been higher than at any point since the restart of guest cruise operations.
Revenue per passenger cruise day in the three months to the end of February was around 7.5% higher than in the same pre-pandemic period of 2018/19. This increase was driven by exceptionally strong onboard and other revenue, Carnival said.
The company added that the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 did have an impact on bookings for the company’s near-term sailings, but occupancy levels nonetheless rose to 54%, with the company seeing a 20% increase in guests carried over the prior quarter.
Revenues in the first quarter of the company's fiscal year totalled US$873mln, compared to just US$3mln a year earlier while the loss before tax narrowed slightly to US$1,888mln from US$1,979mln.
The quarter ended with the company boasting US$7.2bn of liquidity.
As of today, the company’s said cruise operations are running at 75% of capacity and it expects to have each of its brands’ full fleets back in guest cruise operations for their respective summer seasons. Carnival’s brands include P&O Cruises, which has no relation to P&O Ferries, the company currently attracting much anger for its callous treatment of its (former) employees.
"Despite the impact of Omicron, guests carried grew by nearly 20% in the first quarter compared to the prior quarter, while simultaneously increasing revenue per passenger cruise day and driving an improvement in adjusted EBITDA [underlying earnings]. 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,” said Arnold Donald; things have got so bad at the company that Donald is holding down three jobs: president, chief executive officer and chief climate officer.
"We believe we have positioned the company well to withstand volatility on our path to profitability and have been working hard to resume operations as a stronger and more sustainable operating company, to maximise cash generation and to deliver double-digit returns on invested capital over time,” Donald said.