P&O Cruises Australia has once again pushed back the date it plans to start sailing its fleet, this time to mid-June.
The Carnival Corp-owned brand has delayed its restart date several times over the past year as a result of the pandemic, the latest time to 19 June.
Carnival, which has extended fleet suspensions time and again across nine brands, did not explain the reason for the latest pause, other than to call it "a practical approach" to sailing.
"While we are becoming increasingly confident in the restart of cruising in Australia, we are continuing with the realistic and pragmatic approach we have adopted previously," P&O Cruises Australia president Sture Myrmell said in a statement.
Other brands also delayed again
Carnival's Costa Cruises has pushed out its restart by two weeks with plans to pull up anchor in late March.
The owner of 11 cruiseships expects to resume sailing again on 27 March with the departure of the 5,224-berth Costa Smeralda (built 2020).
Costa Cruises has not changed its itineraries, which include three-day and four-day "mini-cruises" or seven-day voyages to the Italian ports of Savona, La Spezia, Civitavecchia, Naples, Messina and Cagliari.
The Costa Smeralda will return to sailing week-long cruises in the western Mediterranean on 1 May.
The AIDA Cruises brand plans to pull up anchor on its fleet of 14 Covid 19-suspended ships in about a month's time.
Carnival's German brand expects to open its 2021 cruise season on 20 March, with the 3,300-berth AIDAperla (built 2017) sailing around Spain's Canary Islands off Africa's north-west coast.
The AIDA relaunch, which was initially set for 6 March, will come three weeks after Germany extended its pandemic lockdown until March 2021.
Its six other brands are also under fleet suspensions of varying lengths as Carnival continues to push back restart dates.
