Carnival Corp figures higher than expected

Quarterly profits at Carnival Corporation have almost doubled compared with last year, the company has announced, after it hit $301 million compared with $159 million a year ago.

Shares in New York responded well to the news, rising by 4 per cent.

“Our teams delivered another strong quarter of operational improvement by creating increased demand for our brands and leveraging our scale which resulted in revenue yield improvement approaching 6 percent and the near doubling of first quarter adjusted earnings,” Arnold Donald, chief executive officer and president of Carnival Corporation, said.

Revenue rose to $3.7 billion, up from $3.5 billion last year.

“We thank our millions of loyal guests and valued travel professional partners around the globe for their patronage and support.”

The company has recently taken delivery of ships for its Aida and Holland America brands. It will take the Carnival Vista and Seabourn Encore later this year. It has also recently been granted approval by the US government to start cruises to Cuba from Miami with its Fathom brand.

Speaking on a conference call to discuss the figures, Donald explained how the company was treating the recent attacks in Belgium: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families in the Brussels situation. It is really too early for us to know the exact impact of that. Historically there has been some temporary impact from events like this and the level of impact depends on a lot of different factors.

“But historically eventually people adapt, we don’t know exactly where we are in the process at this point, but right now we see no reason to change guidance. And as you know, our philosophy is things happen every year and we anticipate that without knowing exactly where or what things will happen and we factor that in to an extent.”