Carnival Corporation to Sell Off Three More Cruise Ships

Carnival Corporation has released its fourth quarter 2022 business update, and it includes news that the cruise company will soon remove three more ships from its global fleet.

In the “fleet optimization” section of the fourth quarter report released publicly on its news page, Carnival said “The company expects to remove three additional smaller-less efficient ships from its fleet. Two of these three ships are from Costa Cruises’ fleet as part of the company’s strategy to right-size the brand in light of the continued closure of cruise operations in China, and Costa’s significant presence there prior to the pause in the company’s guest cruise operations.”

“Once completed in spring 2024, the company’s fleet optimization strategy will have reduced Costa’s capacity so that it approximates the 2019 capacity Costa dedicated outside of Asia to its core markets in Continental Europe.”

For 2023, Carnival Corp. expects its total capacity to grow three percent compared to 2019. This is at the lower end of its previously projected range of three to five percent. The growth rate includes the benefit that newly-delivered ships will represent nearly a quarter of the company’s capacity.

Since the start of the pandemic, Carnival Corporation has already sold off or scrapped over 20 of its older vessels from Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Costa Cruises, P&O Cruises, P&O Cruises Australia, and AIDA Cruises.

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