Carnival Anticipates Record Numbers in Caribbean in 2007

Carnival Corp.’s net income for the first quarter of 2007 was up 13 percent over the same period in 2006, buoyed by increased capacity and strong pricing in Europe, the company said in an earnings call with analysts last week.

Carnival Corp. Chairman and CEO Micky Arison said that, “despite a soft pricing environment in this segment, we’ll carry a record number of guests to the Caribbean this year.”

Carnival reported a net profit of $283 million on revenues of $2.69 billion for its first quarter, which ended February 28. Net income for first-quarter 2006 was $251 million on revenues of $2.46 billion.

Revenues increased 9.1 percent, driven by a 7.4 percent increase in cruise capacity and a 1.7 percent increase in gross cruise revenue yields, Carnival said.

Net revenue yields for the first quarter of 2007 increased marginally compared to the prior year. In addition, Carnival said its cruise costs for first-quarter 2007 increased 1.3 percent over the same period of 2006.

Arison also said that the first quarter continued the trend seen in recent quarters, of strong growth in cruise revenue yields from the company’s European cruise brands offsetting pricing weakness in the Caribbean.

Carnival said that bookings from the beginning of January through February 4 were up in the Caribbean over last year, but less than its 2007 capacity increase. The company expects net revenue yields for 2007 to be flat to up about 1 percent to 2 percent compared to 2006 and net cruise costs for the year are expected to be flat to down about 1 percent to 2 percent, compared to 2006.