Carnival pleases with Q3 results, raises guidance

Cruise operator Carnival pleased with its third quarter results, which showed strong customer demand and higher spending onboard its cruise ships.

Revenue of $4.9bn were up from $4.7bn a year earlier, with net revenue yields up 1.8% on the same period in the prior year at constant dollar rates, which was also better than the company's guidance in June.

The group's Asia operations performed particularly well during the quarter, driven by a double-digit yield increase in the emerging cruise market of China.

Continental European operations also enjoyed strong yield and profit improvement in the quarter, reflecting continued
progress for the Costa brand, while the summer Caribbean product attracted nearly 20% more guests year on year.

President and chief executive officer Arnold Donald said: "Strong close-in demand and higher onboard spending helped drive significantly better than expected third quarter results and 15 percent year-over-year earnings improvement."

He added: “The sustained improvement in booking trends as we have progressed through the year combined with yield increases in the second half of 2014 builds confidence that we will see continued yield growth in 2015 and beyond.”

On outlook, the company said current cumulative advance bookings for the first half of 2015 were ahead of the prior year at higher prices.

Management also raised their guidance for full year net revenue yields, saying they were now expected to be in line on a constant dollar basis, better than June's guidance which had predicted yields would be down slightly.

Shares in Carnival rose 2.2% to on the news.