Carnival Corp is restructuring the deployment of its fleet across several brands in a move that includes shifting ships from its European brands AIDA Cruises and Costa Cruises across to flagship company Carnival Cruise Lines.
Cruise industry observers said they are taking the redeployments as a sign that the cruise giant expects a stronger revival in the US cruise market rather than in Europe.
German subsidiary AIDA Cruises has also sold its pioneer cruiseship in a move that the parent company gave as an opportunity to optimise its fleet structure.
The company did not disclose the identity of the buyer of the 38,600-gt AIDAcara (built 1996) when the sale was revealed on Wednesday evening.
Two cruise brokers told TradeWinds that the ship had attracted interest from Asian buyers.
At the same time, an LNG-fuelled, 183,200-gt cruiseship being built for AIDA at Meyer Werft in Papenburg will instead join the fleet of Carnival Cruise Line when it is delivered in 2023.
An identical sistership named AIDAcosma is still scheduled to join the fleet in 2021.
Also being shifted across to the Carnival Cruise Line fleet is Costa Cruises’ 102,784-gt Costa Magica (built 2004), which will be drydocked for what the company called a “Carnival-branded conversion” before joining the US brand's fleet by mid-2022.
Carnival Cruise Line cut its capacity during the pandemic shutdown, selling four of its 70,400-gt Fantasy-class cruiseships, three of which went to Turkey for recycling.
The addition of the two ships poached from AIDA and Costa, together with two other LNG-fuelled newbuildings will bring the Carnival fleet strength to 27 vessels by the end of 2023.
Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, said: "We are excited about these additions to our fleet, which reflect the strong position that Carnival has established in the US, the pent-up demand we continue to see for cruise vacations, and the overall plans by Carnival Corp to optimise capacity and growth in key markets."
Carnival Corp’s various brands have been prolific sellers of tonnage since the outbreak of Covid-19, with 13 ships sold for further trading and another four sold for scrap.
The company has taken delivery of four cruiseship newbuilding during 2020, and has another 14 on order.
