Carnival Corporation said in a regulatory filing on Friday that as of July 31, 2020, the company had $7.9 billion in cash and cash equivalent balance available.
The nine-brand operation said earlier in July that during its pause in guest operations, the monthly average cash burn rate for the second half of 2020 is estimated to be approximately $650 million per month, which could give Carnival approximately 12 months of cash with ships out of operation.
Carnival Corporation has scotched speculation that luxury brands Cunard and Seabourn could be sold as the cruise giant seeks to navigate recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The company was responding to a specialist media report.
Global shipping news service TradeWinds claimed a sale could be prompted by ageing passenger demographics and a need to generate higher returns.
But a Carnival Corporation spokesman said: “There is no truth to this rumour.
“Cunard and Seabourn are iconic brands for our company, and both lines have a strong track record of success over the years.”
The company announced that it is to dispose of a further two ships, in addition to the disposal of 13 ships across its brands and the delayed delivery of new vessels announced earlier this month.
Four older Holland America Line ships have been sold, including two to Fred Olsen Cruise Lines, while P&O Cruises’ Oceana has left the fleet and Greek line Celestyal Cruises acquired Costa Cruises’ Costa NewRomantica.
In June, Carnival Corporation said it was speeding up the disposal of ships after a registered $2.4 billion adjusted net loss in the three months to May 31.
It has raised at least $10 billion through a series of financial transactions since March, and had “taken significant actions to preserve cash and secure additional financing to maximise its liquidity”.
It also confirmed $8.8 billion of credit facilities to fund ship deliveries originally planned through to 2023.
Cunard sailings by Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria are suspended until November 1 and Queen Elizabeth until November 23.
Seabourn’s five-ship fleet is on an extended pause in operations into October and November.
The brand had previously announced a suspension of its global ship operations from March 14 until June 30.
Carnival UK has confirmed its sales team will be reduced following a consultation launched as a result of the Covid-19 crisis but insisted the move was a “forced necessity” due to social distancing measures and limitations on agency visits.
The cruise giant completed a consultation period on Tuesday, with 450 roles – nearly a third of Carnival UK’s shore-based staff – being made redundant.
Several staff of P&O Cruises, Cunard, Princess, Holland America Line and Seabourn highlighted their jobs were at risk on social media channels in recent weeks. Among those who posted are Chloe Palmer and Neal Hussey, who were both in the P&O Cruises sales team; Richard Cross, who worked in Cunard’s sales team; Princess Cruises’ commercial director Chris Barnaville; Andrea Jones and Charlotte Brailsford, who were both in the Princess agency sales team.
Carnival UK declined to confirm how many trades facing sales roles had been lost.
In addition to the redundancies, Carnival UK confirmed that “another significant proportion” of staff will take a period of sabbatical, a group understood to include Cunard’s UK sales director Gary Anslow. Travel Weekly believes Anslow has taken a six-month sabbatical and will return early January.
P&O Cruises’ president Paul Ludlow said the company was “devastated to have to take this action which has affected so many talented and dedicated colleagues”.
Despite the reduction in an agency facing roles in the sales team, Ludlow insisted the brand’s commitment to the trade “remained as strong as ever”.
During the consultation period, a member of staff, who was at risk and asked to remain anonymous, said the move was “completely the wrong decision”, claiming 60% of P&O Cruises’ UK bookings come from travel agents.
In a statement, Ludlow said: “The Covid-19 pandemic has not only affected the holidays of our guests but it has also impacted every part of our business; our future deployment; the guest experience; our supply chain and our people on the ship and onshore.
“Due to this impact, we have had to make some really tough decisions to ensure that we can sustain and protect our business for the future. Following a period of collective consultation, nearly a third of our shore-based staff will very sadly be leaving our business on June 30 and another significant proportion will take a period of sabbatical.
“We are devastated to have to take this action which has affected so many talented and dedicated colleagues.
“We appreciate it is a very difficult and unsettling time for everyone but we have followed a clear and fair consultation process and considered all individual suggestions for new ways of working.
“At the current time as our operations are paused, we are working at the highest levels to develop a comprehensive restart programme to phase our ships back into service with enhanced and approved protocols that will keep everyone on board well and still give our guests an amazing holiday.
“Our commitment to the travel trade remains as strong as ever. The reduction in the sales team was, very sadly, a forced necessity due to social distancing and the limitations of the shop and office visits.
“We remain committed to developing new ways of working to best support our agent partners encouraging agent feedback and including training and regular communication through our 15,000 strong agent Shine programme. We would like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our sincere thanks to all our agent partners for their mutual work supporting our guests during our pause in operations and we look forward to working together as we develop our re-start plans.”
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