Cruise group Carnival closed the 2020 financial year with a net loss of -$10.2 billion

It is not surprising, therefore, that the performance chart of the last fifteen years of the cruise group Carnival Corporation, a world market leader, shows a slight decrease in results to coincide with the effect of of the financial crisis and instead a real meltdown due to the to the shock of the health crisis.

Already in the first quarter of 2020, when impact of the pandemic on economic activities and were contained, Carnival had registered a record net loss of -781 million dollars, the first result net negative economic performance after 20 consecutive quarters stored with a profit. Net loss drastically aggravated in the next quarter when the cruise business was significantly decreased, having amounted to -4.37 billion dollars, and stood at -2.86 billion and -2.22 billion respectively billion dollars in the third and fourth quarters of the year 2020, which ended on November 30th. In the last two periods revenues fell dramatically by -99.5% and -99.3% to $31 million and $35 million, while operating expenses are decreased but only by -49.1% and -61.0%. The two quarters were closed with negative and even operating results -2.33 billion and -1.64 billion dollars respectively compared to operating profits of 1.78 billion and 423 million third and fourth quarters of the 2019 financial year.

Carnival closed its full 2020 financial year with revenues of $5.59 billion, down -73.1% compared to the previous year, of which 3.68 billion from the sale of cruises (-73.9%) and 1.91 billion from sales on board ships (-71.6%). Operating costs were $14.46 billion (-17.6%). Operating profit and result both were negative and amounted to -8.65 billion and -10.24 billion dollars compared to an operating profit of $3.27 billion and a net profit of $2.99 billion in the 2019 financial year.

Carnival did not disclose how many passengers boarded the vessels of its fleet in the full 2020 financial year (in the financial year had been 12.87 million). It is to be assumed, however, after the 3.06 million passengers transported in the first quarter of 2020 and the 426,000 in the following quarter, the zeroing of the activity that took place in the third quarter mainly also characterized the fourth quarter, although it with the carrying out in the period of some cruise that has yielded ticket sales of four million dollars.