The cruise giant – which operates nine brands including P&O Cruises, Cunard and Princess Cruises – reported a net loss of $214 million despite record revenues of $5.4 billion.
During the same period last year, the company made a loss of $686 million.
The company’s booked position for the remainder of the year continues to be the best on record, with both pricing and occupancy “considerably” higher than 2023.
Carnival Corp chief executive Josh Weinstein said: “This has been a fantastic start to the year. We delivered another strong quarter that outperformed guidance on every measure, while concluding a monumental wave season that achieved all-time high booking volumes at considerably higher prices.”
Carnival Corp noted how onboard revenue per diems were higher during Q1 in Europe, North America and Australia than in 2023.
“Everybody on both sides of the Atlantic are moving in a positive way,” said Weinstein, adding: “Our European brands are getting price and occupancy.”
Weinstein said that in the first quarter new-to-cruise passenger numbers were up 30% year-on-year. "That backdrop is incredibly encouraging for the cruise industry," he commented. "New to cruise [passengers] is the greatest litmus test that things are working and the message is getting through."
Chief financial officer David Bernstein said the company expected occupancy levels to go up in the second quarter.
Carnival Corp did reveal it estimates the collapse of Baltimore’s Key Bridge, which forced Carnival Legend’s operations to be temporarily moved to Norfolk, Virginia, will impact business by up to $10 million on both adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) and adjusted net income for 2024.
However, Weinstein said: “These results are a continuation of the strong demand we have been generating across our brands and all core deployments, leading to an upward revision of full year expectations by more than a point of incremental yield improvement and setting us up nicely to deliver a nearly double-digit improvement in net yields.
"With much of this year on the books, we have even greater conviction in delivering record revenues and EBITDA, along with a step change improvement in operating performance, and have begun turning more of our attention to delivering an even stronger 2025.”
He hailed the efforts of travel agents in helping Carnival Corp carry three million passengers during the quarter, saying: “We could not have done this without the support of our travel advisors and our other stakeholders.”
Bernstein said the business expects “robust revenue growth” in the next few years, but stressed it would adopt a “responsible approach to capital investment”.
Carnival Corp said it continued to “proactively” manage its debt profile during the first quarter, adding it had repaid nearly $1 billion of debt. The company ended the quarter with $5.2 billion of liquidity.
