Carnival Corporation has ordered three new ships for its Carnival Cruise Line for a new class of vessels, of almost 230,000 gross registered tons.
The agreement with the Italian shipyard Fincantieri provides for the design, engineering and construction of these liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered vessels, which will be delivered in the summers of 2029, 2031 and 2033, respectively.
“We are proud to be known as America’s cruise line, with tremendous guest loyalty and an exceptional team that has enabled us to deliver memorable vacations to more than 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 features of FUN and excitement that we know our guests will love“.
With this order, Carnival Cruise Line has now announced five new ship orders for 2024. Earlier this year, Carnival Corporation placed its first new-build orders in five years for two additional Excel-class ships that will join the Carnival Cruise Line fleet in 2027 and 2028.
The company also previously announced a series of strategic changes to further optimize the composition of its global brand portfolio and increase Carnival Cruise Line's guest capacity, transferring a total of five sister-brand ships to the Carnival Cruise Line fleet between 2023 and March 2025.
“We are doubling down on the growth of Carnival Cruise Line – our highest-performing brand – to keep up with the incredibly strong demand we continue to see for the world’s most popular cruise line,” said Josh Weinstein, CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc.
“At present, our newbuild pipeline consists of only one delivery in each of the years 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2031, and 2033. We continue to take a disciplined approach to growth, strategically directing new capacity to areas of greatest demand at a rate of one to two new vessels per year“.
According to Weinstein, this order will bring the company's measured global capacity growth between 2025 and 2033 to an average of approximately 1.5% per year.
“This gives us the flexibility to strategically provide new capacity to our portfolio brands such as Carnival Cruise Line, which provide outsourced returns, while we continue to execute against our responsible capital strategy, using our strong free cash flow over the next few years to improve our balance sheet, significantly reduce our debt, and continue to transfer value from debt holders to shareholders,” he said.
With more than 3,000 cabins, the new ships will be the largest in Carnival Corporation's global fleet. Once delivered in 2033, Carnival Corporation will have a total of 16 LNG-powered ships, representing nearly 30% of Carnival Corporation's global capacity and resulting in an immediate reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The new ships will also feature advanced energy efficiency, waste management and emissions reduction technologies to further reduce the company's environmental footprint.
“We are delighted to join forces with Carnival Cruise Line to launch a new class of ship, which will be the largest cruise ship ever built by Fincantieri and the largest ship ever built in Italy. We are proud of the role Fincantieri has played in helping Carnival Corporation solidify its position as the world’s largest cruise company and we look forward to continuing this success story together,” said Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO of Fincantieri.
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