As countries around the world continue making progress on vaccines, cruise lines are seeking to restart operations after having most of their operations halted for over a year. On Wednesday, Carnival Corp provided results for the first quarter and a more general business update.
The company said that in the first quarter, its cash burn rate was $500 million a month, and it expects the rate for the first half of the year to be $550 million.
However, the company currently has over $11 billion in liquidity due to aggressive capital raising, so it should be able to bridge the gap between now and a broader resumption of cruising.
While the pandemic does currently seem to be far from over, Carnival is no longer waiting to start getting its ships back at sea.
It plans to have 9 ships sailing this summer with customers on board, and its CEO Arnold Donald said the company is considering moving home ports for its ships out of the U.S. if it can’t comply with CDC orders.