Carnival Cruise Line said Tuesday that its annual revenue will take a hit as it has to reroute ships scheduled to transit the Red Sea due to continued terrorist attacks by the Yemen-based Houthis. .
The Florida-based company has been forced to remove ships from a key shipping route between Asia and Europe as the Houthis, in solidarity with the Palestinians, step up attacks on Israeli ships and ships heading to Israel. joins a growing list of companies.
On Monday, Houthi rebels announced they had attacked a US naval mobile base in the Gulf of Aden.
The Pura, which functions as a floating landing base, had previously been stationed in the Arabian Sea as part of US efforts to curb Houthi attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The crew of a Marshall Islands-flagged tanker worked for several hours on Saturday to extinguish a fire on board caused by a Houthi missile attack in the Red Sea.
Carnival’s rerouting is expected to have a 7 cent to 8 cent impact on full-year 2024 adjusted earnings per share, with the majority of the impact occurring in the second quarter.
Carnival had expected full-year adjusted earnings per share of 93 cents in December.
“In view of recent developments and in close consultation with global security experts and government authorities, the company is changing the itineraries of 12 ships of seven brands that were scheduled to transit the Red Sea until May 2024. “We have made this decision,” Carnival said in a statement. .
In early January, rival Royal Caribbean Group announced it had canceled two sailings to the region due to attacks on ships.
Swiss-Italian operator MSC Cruises also announced the cancellation of three flights scheduled for April to Europe from South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
Still, Carnival said Tuesday that the all-important wave season has gotten off to an “early and strong” start, with bookings the highest since November.
The owners of Cunard and Holland America Line cruise lines said they were almost fully booked for the first half of 2024, adding that they expected strong bookings for the year to offset the impact of Red Sea route changes.
Cruise company stocks were mostly flat in volatile morning trading.
with post wire
