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(September 2009) posted on Thu Sep 24, 2009 EDT

Two more ships planned for 2012

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Carnival Corp. is bracing for a record delivery of six new ships next year. Contributing to a 7.7 percent fleetwide increase will be: Costa Deliciosa (mid-January); AIDAblue (early February); P&O's Azura (late March); Seabourn's Sojourn (late May); Holland America Line's New Amsterdam (late June) and Cunard's Queen Elizabeth, the replacement ship for the QE2 (late September). “Of the new ships, four are for our European brands which is a continuation of our strategy to expand our business in the less penetrated European market,” said Howard Frank, Carnival's vice chairman and coo in this week's third-quarter earnings call. Two more ships will join the fleet in 2012, one for Costa and one for AIDA.

The company's strategy isn't just about buying. Costa Europa has been chartered out to a European tour operator and will leave the fleet in April 2010. P&O's Artemis, the line's smallest cruise ship. was sold and will be delivered to its new owner in 2011.

Few new deals are expected near term. Micky Arison, chairman and ceo, said that even though prices look “reasonable” in euros, the recent weakness of the dollar makes buying difficult. “That is not to say deals won get done as time moves on,” he told analysts on the call. “We are in September already and we are not writing specifications. So the likelihood is that a contract won't get done before the end of the year, and that would make it difficult to get the ship for 2012—not impossible, but quite difficult.”