Carnival PLC on Thursday reported a narrowed annual loss as revenue surged as booking volumes rose sharply.
The Miami, Florida-based cruise operator said pretax loss narrowed to $62 million in the financial year ended November 30, from $6.08 billion a year prior.
Revenue surged 77% to $21.59 billion from $12.17 billion. In the fourth financial quarter, revenue jumped 41% to $5.40 billion from $3.84 billion. The company said that booking values in the fourth quarter continued to be ‘at significantly elevated levels.’
‘We consistently outperformed in all four quarters of the year, buoyed by a strengthening demand environment across all our brands,’ said Chief Executive Officer Josh Weinstein.
He added: ‘Net yields for the fourth quarter continued on a positive trajectory, were significantly higher than a very strong 2019 and even higher than we had anticipated, enabling us to overcome four years of high cost inflation to deliver five percent higher per unit earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation than 2019 (holding fuel and currency constant).’
Looking ahead Weinstein said: ‘Thanks to a strong second half of 2023, we are already tracking ahead of our plan to achieve SEA Change, our three-year financial targets calling for the highest adjusted return on invested capital and adjusted Ebitda per ALBD in nearly two decades. Based on our 2024 guidance, we expect to deliver another big step forward, positioning us more than halfway toward realizing all our 2026 SEA Change targets. With nearly two-thirds of 2024 on the books already, we are well positioned to obtain another year of record revenues and adjusted Ebitda,’ Weinstein noted.
The company explained that ALBD ‘is a standard measure of passenger capacity for the period that we use to approximate rate and capacity variances, based on consistently applied formulas that we use to perform analyses to determine the main non-capacity driven factors that cause our cruise revenues and expenses to vary. ALBDs assume that each cabin we offer for sale accommodates two passengers and is computed by multiplying passenger capacity by revenue-producing ship operating days in the period.’
Carnival shares closed 3.9% higher at 1,383.50 pence per share on Thursday in London.
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