Carnival Corporation – the world’s largest cruise operator – has ordered three additional ships for use on its Carnival Cruise Line to keep up with customer demand.
Consumer demand for cruise holidays have reached historic levels, globally.
The new ships will also feature advanced energy efficiency, waste management, and emission reduction technologies to further reduce the company’s environmental footprint.
The agreement with Italian shipbuilder Fincantieri provides for the design, engineering, and construction of these liquefied natural gas (LNG)-powered ships, which will be delivered in the summers of 2029, 2031 and 2033, respectively.
The new ships will take Carnival Corporation’s LNG-powered fleet to 16 ships.
With over 3,000 guest staterooms, the new ships will be the largest in the Carnival Corporation global fleet and will be able to deliver fun to more guests than any ship in the world when carrying almost 8,000 guests at full capacity.
“We are proud to be known as America’s cruise line with tremendous guest loyalty and an outstanding team that has enabled us to deliver memorable vacations to over 100 million guests,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line.
“For this next generation ship, we are focused on creating innovative guest experiences that will take Carnival Cruise Line into the future with new FUN features and excitement that we know our guests will LOVE.”
“We are doubling down on the growth of Carnival Cruise Line – our highest-returning brand – to keep up with the incredibly strong demand we continue to see for the world’s most popular cruise line,” said Josh Weinstein, chief executive officer of Carnival Corporation.
“At this point, our newbuild pipeline is just one delivery in each of 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2031 and 2033. We continue to take a disciplined approach to growth, strategically directing new capacity to the areas of highest demand at a rate of one to two new ships per year.”
According to Mr Weinstein, this order will take the company’s overall measured capacity growth between 2025 and 2033 to an average of approximately 1.5% per year.
“This gives us the headroom to strategically provide new capacity to the brands in our portfolio like Carnival Cruise Line, which provide outsized returns while continuing to execute against our responsible capital strategy, using our strong free cash flow over the next several years to improve our balance sheet, significantly reduce our debt, and continue to transfer value from debt holders to shareholders,” he said.
As well as Carnival Cruise Line, Carnival Corporation covers AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises (Australia), P&O Cruises (UK), Princess Cruises, and Seabourn.
