Carnival Corporation & plc Reports Financial Impact of Star Princess
MIAMI, March 28, 2006 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Carnival Corporation & plc (NYSE/LSE: CCL; NYSE: CUK) announced today that in order to make permanent repairs to the cabins affected by last week's fire on the Star Princess, the ship will be taken out of service until May 15 when it will begin its European season.
In addition to the already cancelled Caribbean departures of March 26 and April 2, cruises scheduled for April 9, 16, 23 and the April 30 transatlantic cruise are being cancelled. Passengers booked on these cruises will receive a full refund of their cruise and non-refundable air charges and a future cruise credit equal to 25 percent of the cruise fare paid on these sailings.
Star Princess will sail this week from the Grand Bahama Shipyard in Freeport, where she currently is located, to the Lloyd Werft shipyard in Bremerhaven, Germany. The ship will be back in service for its first European cruise, which will depart from Copenhagen on May 15.
The company estimates that the cancelled cruises and repairs to the vessel will result in approximately a $0.04 to $0.05 reduction to the company's second quarter and 2006 full year diluted earnings per share.
Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest cruise vacation group in the world, with a portfolio of 12 cruise brands in North America, Europe and Australia, comprised of Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, Windstar Cruises, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Ocean Village, P&O Cruises, Swan Hellenic, and P&O Cruises Australia.
Together, these brands operate 80 ships totaling approximately 139,000 lower berths with 15 new ships scheduled to enter service between June 2006 and fall 2009. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates the leading tour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon, Holland America Tours and Princess Tours. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices.
SOURCE Carnival Corporation
CONTACT: US: Media, Tim Gallagher of Carnival Corporation & plc,
+1-305-599-2600, ext. 16000; UK: Sophie Fitton or Sarah Lindgreen, both of
Brunswick Group, +44-20-7404-5959; Investor Relations - US-UK: Beth Roberts of
Carnival Corporation & plc, +1-305-406-4832, +44-7956-436-104
