The new Carnival Corp boss says all nine Carnival brands “can do better” and generate more revenue.
Speaking during the firm’s quarterly results call on Friday, Josh Weinstein revealed he has already discussed “activities” with Princess Cruises, Holland America Line and Costa Cruises.
Weinstein, who took over from Arnold Donald as president and chief executive in August, said business was “incredibly strong” over the past six weeks and recently outlined how he would “spending time” with each Carnival brand to “understand what they need”.
More: Webcast: Carnival Corporation president Josh Weinstein
He said: “We can do better. I have high expectations for all our brands to make significant improvement on the revenue side.
“Some of it is blocking and tackling and some of it is pushing the envelope in certain areas.”
He outlined how “hundreds of things” could lead to “significant improvement” among the brands.
“All of our brands are at varying points with respect to their pricing and their occupancy and how they play, and they are responding to their source market and their target audience,” he added.
“They are trying to optimise it as best they can.”
Looking ahead, chief financial officer David Bernstein, who joined Weinstein on the call, predicted that future cruise credits would have “less than a percentage point” impact on yields next year.
This year, the company had seen “a couple of [percentage] points” of impact due to FCCs.
He added that the company, which reported a net loss of $770 million in the third quarter, to see occupancy levels return to historical levels “by the summer of 2023”.
“For 2023, we expect our capacity increase to be somewhere in the range of 3% to 5% compared with 2019,” he explained.
Bernstein added that “fleet optimisation efforts” to make ships more energy efficient would help mitigate against inflation.
He forecasted that 2023 could be “a record year” in terms of onboard revenue generated across the company’s 91-ship fleet.
Carnival shares fell by 15.01% in early trading on Friday as the New York Stock Exchange reacted to the quarterly results.
Weinstein said the company was working towards achieving “a successful Wave” because it had been “years” since the industry had accomplished that.
More: Webcast: Carnival Corporation president Josh Weinstein