P&O Cruises, the UK focused contemporary market unit in Carnival Corporation & plc group, said it has decided to extended the pause in its operations into April 2021 in response to the current uncertainty around European ports of call.

On 17 September, the company said that all its Caribbean cruises would be cancelled until the end of January 2021 and all cruises from and to Southampton are cancelled through February as well as Arcadia and Aurora, which have already been cancelled through to the end of their spring world cruises.

P&O Cruises president Paul Ludlow said in a statement: “With hopeful news headlines clearly we do not want to extend our pause in operations any further than absolutely necessary, but given the ever changing guidance around international travel and the varying regulations in many European ports of call we felt it prudent to cancel these additional dates.”

“In addition, as the final payments are due for these cruises very soon we felt it was the right thing to do for our guests. We are so sorry to disappoint those who were due to travel but really hope they will re-book for later in the year or for our new programme of 2022 holidays which went on sale earlier this month with strong demand, showing great confidence in cruising in the future.”

Photo: P&O Cruises took delivery of Iona from Meyer Werft in Germany earlier this autumn.