Carnival Corporation & plc released its third quarter 2022 business update, reflecting several positive upward trends.
- In comparison with this year's second-quarter results, the company's revenue increased by nearly 80% in the third quarter of 2022, indicating continued consecutive improvement.
- Onboard and other revenue per passenger cruise day ("PCD") also increased significantly, even compared with strong 2019 numbers.
- In fact, third-quarter PCDs were 17.7 million, representing 55 percent growth over the previous quarter.
- Occupancy during the same period increased 15 percentage points over the second quarter of 2022.
- The third quarter's available lower berth days ("ALBD") were 21.0 million, which equals 92 percent of the company's overall fleet capacity, having increased from 74 percent of total fleet capacity in 2022's second quarter.
- Adjusted EBITDA (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) for the third quarter of 2022 was over $300 million, marking the first positive turn since guest cruise operations resumed in July 2021.
- As of August 31, 2022, Carnival Corp's total customer deposits stood at $4.8 billion, falling just shy of the $4.9 billion it held as of August 31, 2019, for the same year.
- The company closed out the third quarter of 2022 with a liquidity of $7.4 billion, which includes cash and borrowings available under the company's revolving credit facility.
As of September 30, 2022, about 95 percent of Carnival Corp's overall fleet capacity is in operation and serving cruise guests. The company anticipates that eight of its nine brands will have their whole fleet in service by the end of 2022's fourth quarter. The exception being Costa Cruises, which has historically held a significant presence in Asia, especially China, where cruising still remains shut down.
Therefore, the brand is considering other deployment options and looking to optimize its fleet, "alternatives beyond the previously announced transfers of Costa Luminosa to Carnival Cruise Line as well as Costa Venezia and Costa Firenze to the COSTA by CARNIVAL concept," Carnival Corp wrote in today's news release.
"With our return to guest cruise operations essentially complete, we are now relentlessly focused on driving top-line growth and returning to strong profitability," Carnival Corp's Chief Executive Officer Josh Weinstein said in a statement. "We believe the strategic changes we have already made to our fleet resulting in a younger and more efficient fleet, coupled with our recent portfolio optimization efforts including COSTA by CARNIVAL, will provide strong tailwinds along our path to profitability."
Carnival Corp predicted that the fourth quarter, which ends November 30, 2022, will carry a net loss and breakeven to slightly negative adjusted EBITDA. However, it's forecasting a positive adjusted EBITDA for the second half of 2022 overall. The company also expects to see improvements in both adjusted EBITDA and occupancy on a year-over-year basis and anticipates that occupancy will return to pre-pandemic levels next year.
The full details of Carnival Corp's third-quarter business update can be found here.
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