The exit of 19 older, less efficient ships and the addition of newbuilds means there is a better balcony mix across the nine Carnival Corporation’s cruise brands. 

“We enjoy a structural benefit to revenue from these exciting new ships due to the richer mix of premium priced balcony cabins, which will increase 6 percentage points to 55% of our fleet in 2023 and we will achieve a further structural benefit to unit costs,” said Arnold Donald, president and CEO, on the company’s earnings call last Thursday.

Donald said the exit of older ships combined with new ships joining the fleet will generate a 4% reduction in ship level unit cost and a 3% reduction in unit fuel consumption going forward, “enabling us to deliver more revenue to the bottom line,” he said.

“Moreover, we’ve continued to find efficiencies across our existing fleet to reduce our costs further as well as planning for streamlined shoreside operations as we ramp back up to full fleet operations.”