Carnival Corporation has reported earnings and provided a second quarter 2022 business update.
Key highlights:
As previously announced, effective August 1, Arnold Donald, President and CEO, is being appointed Vice Chair of the Boards of Directors. Josh Weinstein, currently Chief Operations Officer for the company, will assume the role of President and CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc.
At that time, Weinstein will also assume the role of Chief Climate Officer and become a Director on the Boards of Directors.
Carnival Corporation & plc President and CEO Arnold Donald noted: “With cash from operations turning positive and the company heading in the right direction, now is the time to transition leadership to the next generation. Josh Weinstein has the skill set ideally suited to take this company forward, including strong operating experience and in-depth industry knowledge cultivated over the past two decades. I am confident our positive momentum will continue under Josh’s leadership and I remain confident in the long-term future of our company.”‘
Carnival Corporation & plc’s next President and CEO Josh Weinstein noted: “I am honored to lead this company as we push forward with a relentless long-term focus on driving revenue and returns to improve our balance sheet, while ensuring each brand provides an authentic cruise experience that resonates with their unique guest base, delivering value for our shareholders and our other many stakeholders.”
Weinstein added: “It is truly humbling to support our exceptionally talented team—150,000 strong ship and shore—in this effort. They’ve accomplished so much during our restart, with incredible determination, perseverance and integrity. This gives me tremendous confidence and optimism about our future.”
Second Quarter 2022 Results and Statistical Information
During the second quarter of 2022, the company issued $1.0 billion aggregate principal amount of senior unsecured notes due 2030, intended to refinance various 2023 debt maturities and invested $0.5 billion in capital expenditures. In addition, the company repaid $0.2 billion of debt principal and incurred $0.4 billion of interest expense, net during the quarter. The company ended the second quarter of 2022 with $7.5billion of liquidity, including cash, short-term investments and borrowings available under the revolving credit facility.
Resumption of Guest Cruise Operations
Donald said: “We are aggressively, yet thoughtfully, ramping up to full operations with over 90 percent of the fleet now in service. We are driving occupancy higher, while at the same time significantly increasing available capacity, resulting in a nearly 50 percent sequential improvement in revenue in the second quarter, despite facing constantly changing and far more restrictive protocols than broader society and travel at large.”
Donald added: “Carnival Cruise Line, our largest brand, achieved consistently positive adjusted EBITDA beginning in March. Carnival Cruise Line also became our first brand to sail its entire fleet in May and is expecting occupancy to approach 110 percent during our third quarter.”
As of June 24, 2022, 91% of the company’s capacity is in guest cruise operation as part of its ongoing return to service. Five of the company’s nine brands now have their entire fleet back in guest cruise operations, including Carnival Cruise Line, which became the first major cruise line in the U.S. to celebrate its entire fleet entering service. The company’s enhanced COVID-19 protocols have helped it become among the safest forms of socializing and travel, with far lower incidence rates than on land.
While the company’s adjusted cruise costs excluding fuel per ALBD (see Non-GAAP Financial Measures) have benefited from the sale of smaller-less efficient ships and the delivery of larger-more efficient ships, this benefit is offset by a portion of its fleet being in pause status for part of the year, restart related expenses, an increase in the number of dry-dock days, the cost of maintaining enhanced health and safety protocols, inflation and supply chain disruptions. The company anticipates that some of these costs and expenses will end in 2022. Additionally, the company continues to expect to see a significant improvement in adjusted cruise costs excluding fuel per ALBD from the first half of 2022 to the second half of 2022 with a mid-teens increase for the full year 2022 compared to 2019, according to a press release.
The company said that the COVID-19 global pandemic and its ongoing effects, inflation and higher fuel prices are collectively having a material impact on the company’s business, including its results of operations, liquidity and financial position. In addition, as is the case with the travel and leisure sector generally, the company is making meaningful progress in resolving the challenges it is experiencing with onboard staffing which have resulted in occupancy constraints on certain voyages.
The company expects a net loss for the third quarter of 2022. For the full year 2022, the company continues to expect a net loss. The company continues to believe that adjusted EBITDA will improve with the ongoing resumption of guest cruise operations and continues to expect improvement in occupancy throughout 2022 until it returns to historical levels in 2023. The company expects positive adjusted EBITDA for the third quarter of 2022.
Fleet Optimization
Carnival Cruise Line – proudly known as America’s cruise line – is teaming up with Costa Cruises – Italy’s favorite cruise line – creating a new concept for Carnival’s North American guests when COSTA® by CARNIVAL® debuts in the spring of 2023 and Costa Venezia joins the Carnival fleet. Costa Venezia will be followed by Costa Firenze arriving in the spring of 2024. Carnival will operate the ships, which will marry the great service, food and entertainment that Carnival’s guests enjoy with Costa’s Italian design features.
In addition, Carnival Cruise Line announced earlier this month that Costa Luminosa will join their fleet later this year and will start guest operations as Carnival Luminosa in November 2022. This will allow Carnival to finally start highly anticipated itineraries from Brisbane and have two ships operating in Australia for the high season Down-Under.
Furthermore, last week the company announced the removal of another smaller-less efficient ship from our fleet. This brings the planned removal to 23 smaller-less efficient ships since the beginning of the pause in guest cruise operations further reducing the company’s rate of capacity growth.
Donald noted, “We continue to build on our fleet optimization efforts by reallocating capacity in a highly differentiated way to strengthen return on invested capital across our portfolio. In addition, we continue to further refine our fleet and have announced the removal of an additional smaller-less efficient ship. Upon returning to full operations, nearly a quarter of our capacity will consist of newly delivered ships, expediting our return to profitability.”
Update on Bookings
Donald noted: “It is reinforcing to see continued strength in demand with our guests overcoming far more restrictive protocols than broader society and travel at large, leading to a near doubling of booking volumes since last quarter with near-term bookings even outpacing 2019. We were encouraged by close-in demand and remain focused on optimizing occupancy while preserving long term pricing.”
Donald added: “As friction from protocols is removed and society becomes increasingly more comfortable managing the virus, we expect to see demand continue to build, as we have already seen with the strength in Carnival Cruise Line’s closer-to-home cruises.”
The company said that the booking volumes for all future sailings during the second quarter of 2022 were nearly double the booking volumes during the first quarter of 2022; the company notes these were its best quarterly booking volumes since the beginning of the pandemic, albeit still below 2019 levels. Booking volumes for the second half of 2022 sailings, since the beginning of April, have been higher than 2019 levels. The company believes this is a reflection of the previously expected extended wave season. (Due to the ongoing resumption of guest cruise operations, the company’s current booking trends will be compared to booking trends for 2019 sailings.)
While cumulative advance bookings for the second half of 2022 are below the historical range, the company’s booked position is consistent with its expected improving occupancy levels for the second half of 2022. Cumulative advance bookings for the second half of 2022 are at lower prices, with or without future cruise credits (“FCCs”), normalized for bundled packages, as compared to 2019 sailings.
Cumulative advanced bookings for the full year 2023 continue to be both at the higher end of the historical range and at higher prices, with or without FCCs, normalized for bundled packages, as compared to 2019 sailings.
Sustainability Update
Continued focus on decarbonization and transparency of disclosures
The company has made significant progress over the past 15 years reducing its carbon emission intensity and achieving its 2020 goal three years early (in 2017). The company has also made significant progress towards its 2030 carbon intensity reduction goals of 40% from a 2008 baseline, measured in both grams of CO2e per ALB-km and kilograms of CO2e per ALBD.
The company has decided to update the baseline year for both goals to 2019 from 2008. This new baseline year will help the company better communicate recent progress against its climate goals to its investors and stakeholders as well as modernize its disclosures in alignment with developing best practice and reporting standards. Both 2030 goals now require a 20% improvement from 2019. With the updated baseline year, the company strengthened its goal measured in kilograms of CO2e per ALBD since the initial 2030 goal would only have required a further 15% reduction from 2019 levels. Its goal measured in grams of CO2e per ALB-km remains the same.
Achieving these 2030 goals will require:
The company continues to evaluate and implement changes to its various annual planning processes to further support its focus on decarbonization, such as the recently adopted Corporate Itinerary Decarbonization Reviews. These changes, together with the updates to its 2030 carbon intensity reduction goals, will improve both performance in sustainability and transparency to its investors and stakeholders on its progress.
In May the company announced the installation of nearly 600 shipboard food waste bio-digesters across its fleet, as a continuation of its efforts to manage food waste and contribute to a circular economy. First piloted in 2019, this food waste processing technology naturally breaks down food waste, which supports the company’s ongoing waste management and drives progress against its goal to achieve a 30% reduction in unit food waste by 2022 and a 50% reduction in unit food waste by 2030. These goals build on the company’s latest achievement of reducing food waste per person by over 20% in December 2021 relative to a 2019 baseline.
