Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise shipping group, said it 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 optimisation 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.

Prior to this, Carnival group had sold 19 ships since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The company now expects total capacity growth of 3% for 2023 compared to 2019, at the lower end of the previous guidance range of 3% to 5%. The prudent capacity growth rate includes the benefit that newly delivered ships will represent nearly a quarter of the company's capacity,” Carnival said in a statement.

Photo: Costa Cruises is based in Genoa in Italy and it is one of the largest brands in the Carnival group