Carnival Corporation orders three additional LNG ships

Cruise company Carnival Corporation has ordered three new liquefied natural gas (LNG) ships, which will be delivered in the summers of 2029, 2031 and 2033, respectively.

Carnival’s LNG-powered fleet

These three LNG ships will be for the company’s namesake Carnival Cruise Line brand for a new class of vessel, at nearly 230,000 gross registered tons. With over 3,000 guest staterooms, the new ships will reportedly be the largest in the Carnival Corporation global fleet and will be able to carry almost 8,000 guests at full capacity. Once delivered in 2033, Carnival Corporation will have a total of 16 LNG-powered ships – including eight Carnival Cruise Line ships – making up almost 30% of Carnival Corporation’s global capacity and delivering greenhouse gas emission reductions. The new ships will feature energy efficiency, waste management and emission reduction technologies to further reduce the company’s environmental footprint. This order is contingent upon financing, which is expected to be completed later this year.

“We are proud to be known as America’s cruise line with tremendous guest loyalty and an outstanding team that has enabled us to deliver memorable vacations to over 100 million guests,” said Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line. “For this next-generation ship, we are focused on creating innovative guest experiences that will take Carnival Cruise Line into the future with new fun features and excitement that we know our guests will love.”

Including this order, five new ship orders have been announced for Carnival Cruise Line in 2024. Earlier in 2024, Carnival Corporation placed its first new-build orders in five years for two more Excel-class ships that will join the Carnival Cruise Line fleet in 2027 and 2028. The company also recently announced a series of strategic shifts to further optimize the composition of its global brand portfolio and to increase guest capacity for Carnival Cruise Line, transferring a total of five vessels from sister brands to the Carnival Cruise Line fleet between 2023 and March 2025.

Responsible growth

“We are doubling down on the growth of Carnival Cruise Line – our highest-returning brand – to keep up with the incredibly strong demand we continue to see for the world’s most popular cruise line,” said Josh Weinstein, chief executive officer of Carnival Corporation.”At this point, our new -build pipeline is just one delivery in each of 2025, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2031 and 2033. We continue to take a disciplined approach to growth, strategically directing new capacity to the areas of highest demand at a rate of one to two new ships per year.”

According to Weinstein, this order will take the company’s overall measured capacity growth between 2025 and 2033 to an average of approximately 1.5% per year. “This gives us the headroom to strategically provide new capacity to the brands in our portfolio like Carnival Cruise Line, which provide outsized returns while continuing to execute against our responsible capital strategy, using our strong free cash flow over the next several years to improve our balance sheet, significantly reduce our debt and continue to transfer value from debt holders to shareholders,” he said.

“We are excited to join forces with Carnival Cruise Line to debut a new class of ship, which will be the largest cruise ship ever constructed by Fincantieri and the largest ship ever built in Italy. We are proud of the role Fincantieri has played in helping Carnival Corporation secure its position as the world’s largest cruise company and look forward to continuing this success story together,” said Pierroberto Folgiero, CEO, Fincantieri.

Design details and itinerary information for the new Carnival Cruise Line ships will be announced in the future.

In related news, ABB and Carnival Corporation recently signed a long-term partnership agreement to collaborate on continued ship performance across the cruise company’s fleet using systematic maintenance planning, spares management and digital solutions for condition monitoring. Click here to read the full story.