Carnival Corp. Reports Full Year and Q4 Earnings; Expects 20% Growth – Cruise Industry News

Carnival Corporation has announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year 2024 and provided an outlook for the first quarter and full year 2025.

Key Highlights

• Full year revenues hit an all-time high of $25 billion, over 15 percent higher than the prior year, with continued strength in demand.
• Full year net income of $1.9 billion; adjusted net income¹ of $1.9 billion outperforms September guidance by over $130 million.
• Record full year adjusted EBITDA of $6.1 billion, over 40 percent higher than the prior year.
• Record full year operating income of $3.6 billion, over 80 percent higher than the prior year.
• Adjusted return on invested capital (“ROIC”) of 11 percent.
• Record fourth quarter revenues of $5.9 billion, 10 percent higher than prior year, delivering record adjusted EBITDA.
• Cumulative advanced booked position for full year 2025 is at an all-time high for both price (in constant currency) and occupancy.
• Adjusted EBITDA per available lower berth (“ALBD”) for 2025 expected to be the highest in almost two decades, achieving 2026 SEA Change target one year in advance.

“This has been an incredibly strong finish to a record year. Revenues hit an all-time high driven by a strong demand environment that we elevated throughout the year, enabling us to outperform our initial 2024 guidance by $700 million and deliver nearly $2 billion more to the bottom line, year over year,” commented Carnival Corporation & plc’s Chief Executive Officer Josh Weinstein. “The progress was broad based as we drove strong pricing in 2024 as compared to 2023 across our major cruise lines and trades.”

“We are delivering long-term value for our shareholders through improved operational execution across our brands, essentially on a same ship basis. We ended 2024 with adjusted ROIC of 11 percent, comfortably above our cost of capital. In fact, with one year down, we’re already over 80 percent of the way toward achieving our 2026 SEA Change EBITDA and adjusted ROIC targets,” Weinstein continued.

According to Weinstein, there is even more in store to continue the momentum as the company is actively working on an enhanced destination strategy to provide guests with yet another reason to take a cruise vacation offered exclusively by Carnival Corporation & plc’s portfolio of cruise lines. The company is also working to increase awareness and consideration for cruise travel globally.

“2025 is shaping up to be another banner year, with yield growth expected to far outpace historical growth rates and again exceed unit cost growth, thanks to the efforts of our amazing team members. They have delivered a step-change improvement in 2024 which sets us up for a fantastic 2025 and beyond, while delivering unforgettable happiness to over 13.5 million guests last year,” Weinstein noted.

Q4 Results

• Net income was $303 million, or $0.23 diluted EPS, versus a net loss of $48 million in 2023. Adjusted net income of $186 million, or $0.14 adjusted EPS¹, outperformed September guidance by $126 million, driven by higher ticket prices, higher onboard spending and improved costs.
• Record fourth quarter adjusted EBITDA of $1.2 billion was 29 percent higher than 2023 and outperformed September guidance by $80 million.
• Record fourth quarter revenues of $5.9 billion, exceeded 2023 levels by 10 percent.
  • Gross margin yields exceeded 2023 levels by 20 percent. Record net yields¹ (in constant currency) exceeded 2023 levels by 6.7 percent and were better than September guidance.
  • Gross margin per diems were 19 percent higher than 2023. Record net per diems¹ (in constant currency) were 5.3 percent higher than 2023 with both ticket prices and onboard spending up.
• Cruise costs per ALBD increased 4.1 percent compared to 2023. Adjusted cruise costs excluding fuel per ALBD¹ (in constant currency) increased 7.4 percent compared to 2023 and were better than September guidance.
• Total customer deposits reached a fourth quarter record of $6.8 billion, surpassing the previous fourth quarter record of $6.4 billion (as of November 30, 2023), reflecting growth in both ticket prices and pre-cruise onboard sales.

Bookings

Even with less inventory available, booking volumes taken during the fourth quarter of 2024 for 2025 were higher than the prior year for a strong 2024, despite the traditionally slower period around the election. Booking volumes taken during the fourth quarter for 2026 continued to break records, reflecting sustained demand even for further out sailings.

“Our brands effectively capitalized on their ongoing strength in demand, achieving higher prices (in constant currency) than last year and reinforcing our record-breaking booked position. In fact, with nearly two-thirds of 2025 already booked, we are expecting another year of strong yield improvement, outpacing historical growth rates and on top of two back-to-back years of mid-to-high single digit per diem growth. This validates the success of our demand generation efforts on our optimized portfolio,” Weinstein noted.

The cumulative advanced booked position for full year 2025 is at an all-time high for both price (in constant currency) and occupancy. Price (in constant currency) and occupancy are higher than 2024 for all four quarters of 2025.

2025 Outlook 

For the full year 2025, the company expects:

• Net yields (in constant currency) approximately 4.2 percent higher than record 2024 levels based on continued strength in demand.
• Adjusted cruise costs excluding fuel per ALBD (in constant currency) up approximately 3.7 percent compared to 2024, in part due to higher dry-dock days, higher advertising expense and operating costs for the company’s new exclusive destination, Celebration Key.
• Adjusted net income of approximately $2.3 billion, over 20 percent higher than 2024.
• Adjusted EBITDA of approximately $6.6 billion, up approximately $500 million compared to 2024. Adjusted EBITDA per ALBD to reach its 2026 SEA Change target one year in advance.
• Adjusted ROIC of approximately 11.7 percent.

Financing and Capital Activity

“With the benefit of well managed near term maturity towers and improved leverage metrics, we expect to opportunistically capitalize on improved interest rates while proactively managing our maturity towers for 2027 and beyond. In 2025, interest expense is currently expected to be over $200 million lower than 2024 and over $500 million lower compared to 2023,”  commented Carnival Corporation & plc’s Chief Financial Officer David Bernstein.

“We are laser focused on continuing our efforts to further reduce interest expense and rebuilding an investment grade balance sheet. Just this year, we achieved a 4.3x net debt to adjusted EBITDA ratio, nearly a two and a half turn improvement from 2023, positioning us three-fourths of the way to our initial leverage target,” Bernstein added.

During 2024, the company made debt prepayments of $3.3 billion, bringing its total prepayments to $7.3 billion since the beginning of 2023. In addition, the company has reduced its debt balance by over $8 billion from its peak in January 2023, ending the year with $27.5 billion of debt. As of November 30, 2024, the company’s debt maturities for full year 2025 and 2026 are $1.5 billion and $2.7 billion.

During the quarter, the company obtained three new export credit facilities, bringing its total committed financings related to ship deliveries to $7.8 billion, continuing its strategy to finance its newbuild program at preferential interest rates.