Carnival Corporation & plc, the world’s largest cruise shipping company, has reported a deep net loss for the  second quarter and said it expects to have more than half of its capacity in service by the end of its financial year on 30 November.

The company reported a net loss of $.2.1 billion for three months ended 31 May, little changed from the $2.0 billion loss in the previous quarter, the company said in a statement.

Booking volumes for all future cruises during the second quarter were 45% higher than booking volumes during the previous three month period.

Deposits for new bookings exceed refunds in quarter

Cumulative advanced bookings for full year 2022 are ahead of a very strong 2019 as of May 31. The company highlights that this level of bookings was achieved with minimal advertising and marketing,” the company said, adding that due to the pause in guest cruise operations, the company's current booking trends will be compared to booking trends for 2019 sailings.

Total customer deposits as of May 31 rose to $2.5 billion from $2.2 billion at the end of the first quarter. “During the quarter, customer deposits on new bookings exceeded the impact of refunds provided,” the company said.

Chief Financial Officer David Bernstein noted: "We ended the second quarter with $9.3 billion of cash and short-term investments. We believe we have sufficient liquidity to get us back to full operations and continue to be focused on pursuing refinancing opportunities to reduce interest rates and extend maturities. To date, through our refinancing efforts, we have reduced our future annual interest expense by over $120 million per year and expect to increase our near-term liquidity by $1.0 billion."

Staged resumption of services to continue

Eight of the company's nine brands either have resumed or have announced they plan to resume guest cruise operations by the company's fiscal year end, November 30.

The company envisages that 27 ships, or approximately 35% of capacity, will have resumed or are announced to resume by the end of the third quarter of 2021 and an additional 15 ships, or nearly 20% of capacity, are announced to resume by the end of the final quarter of the company’s financial year.

Together these 42 ships represent over 50% of capacity, the company said.

Consistent with the company's planned phased resumption of guest cruise operations, it expects to have its full fleet back in operation in the spring of 2022.