Carnival Reports First Quarter Earnings

Carnival Corporation reported net income of $129.6 million on revenues of $905.8 million for its first quarter ended February 28, 2002, compared to net income of $128.0 million ($0.22 EPS) on revenues of $1.0 billion for the same quarter in 2001. Commenting on first quarter results, Carnival Chairman and CEO Micky Arison said he was particularly pleased with the company's first quarter earnings performance, despite the adverse impact on business from the tragic events of September 11. "In the two months following September 11, our advance bookings for 2002 cruises dropped dramatically because of the significant slowdown in travel. The subsequent recovery in our booking levels has greatly exceeded earlier expectations and demonstrates the resiliency of the cruise vacation business," Arison said. Revenues for the first quarter of 2002 were down 10 percent compared to the same quarter in 2001. This decrease in revenues was primarily caused by the impact of the September 11 events, which resulted in a significant reduction in the number of guests purchasing air travel and also lower cruise ticket prices and occupancies. These reductions were partially offset by a 2.3 percent increase in cruise capacity. As a result of lower ticket prices and occupancies, net revenue yields (net revenue per available berth day) were down 7.5 percent compared to the first quarter of last year. Arison pointed out this was "a significant improvement over our November expectations that first quarter net revenue yields would be down 15 percent." Partially offsetting the lower revenues in 2002 was a 7.2 percent reduction in the company's cost per available berth day. First quarter 2002 results also did not include any losses from the company's investment in Airtours plc, which was sold in June 2001.