Carnival Corporation & plc (CCL) Q2 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

For the period ending May 31, 2022

June 24, 2022 10:00 a.m. ET

Prepared Remarks

Questions and Answers

Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Arnold Donald

Good morning, and welcome to our business update conference call. I am Arnold Donald, President and CEO of Carnival Corporation & plc. I'm joined today telephonically by our Chairman, Micky Arison, who is in Europe. And here with me in Miami, David Bernstein, our Chief Financial Officer; Beth Roberts, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations; and as part of our previously announced transition, our Chief Operations Officer, Josh Weinstein. Thank you all for joining us this morning.

Now before I begin, please note that some of our remarks on this call will be forward-looking. Therefore, I must refer you to the cautionary statement in today's press release.

This is my final business update as CEO. While very disappointingly, our share price unfortunately reflects the current market conditions, I am nonetheless very proud of all that the team has accomplished over the last 9 years. I am especially proud of how well we have collectively overcome what seemed like insurmountable obstacles at times these last few years.

And I remain very excited about our future. With cash from operations now turning positive, we have reached an inflection point and, in fact, turned the corner and are headed on a positive trajectory. I'm not only excited about, I am also very confident in the future of our company, and I'm looking forward to its continuous success. I strongly believe in this team and we are enjoying a smooth transition.

As Vice Chairman, far and away, my number one responsibility will be to support Josh and his management team as they work to build on the current momentum. Josh is a proven executive. He is well respected throughout the company. He served in key leadership roles. He's driven strong business results during his tenure. And he played an integral part in [tuning] (ph) the company through the global pandemic. Josh's thorough understanding of our industry, of our operations and our business strategy puts him in a strong position to lead the next phase of our company's journey. With his vision, intensity and core values truly aligned with those that characterize our company, I cannot think of anyone better suited for this role than Josh.

Now turning to our business results. It is reinforcing to see the continued strength and demand for cruise. We are aggressively, yet thoughtfully, ramping up to full operations, with over 90% of the fleet now in service. And at the same time, we are driving occupancy higher on those ships that have been sailing and we are focused on improving pricing compared to pre-COVID levels.