The US cruise giant Carnival has no income in the summer and burns massive money every month. The German offshoot Aida is now auditioning for state aid. At the same time, the company boss holds out the prospect of price increases. And he doesn't have good news for the shipyards either.
The cruise company Aida has applied for state aid. As the NDR reports, citing an insider, a corresponding application has been made to the Economic Stabilization Fund. It is about aid amounting to 400 million euros. The state would vouch for the sum. At the same time, a state participation is under discussion. In the "Welt am Sonntag", Aida boss Michael Thamm said: "We are in talks with the federal government about granting loans in the mid three-digit million euro range." The Federal Ministry of Economics made no information.
"We have lost sales of 400 million euros every month," Thamm said. "We cannot compensate for that with cost reductions." In the past few months, Europe's largest cruise operator Costa, to which Aida also belongs, has suffered a loss in the mid three-digit million range. Against this background, Thamm also promised price increases: "It is conceivable that cruises will be 10 to 15 percent more expensive," he said. Even so, Costa and Aida branded rides would "remain affordable".
Thamm expects the provider to gradually have all ships in service over the course of 2021. If the pandemic allows, this will happen in spring. One will "try with great precision" not to let infected people on board. But then customers will again be able to offer buffets, pool parties and discos on board. Nevertheless, the Costa Group does not want to order any more ships for the time being. Four new buildings ordered will be accepted as planned. "We will then be big enough and will not order any new ships in the next two to three years," he said. "This will certainly lead to dramatic failures at shipyards and suppliers," said the Costa boss.
Aida mother with billions minus
At the end of October, the Kussmund fleet had stopped the cruise operations that had only started a few weeks ago. All planned trips in November have been canceled. The background to this is the tourist accommodation ban decided by the federal and state governments for the entire month. The shipping company currently expects to be able to resume operations in December.
For the listed owner of Aida, the world's largest cruise operator Carnival, this is a setback. Large parts of the fleet have been in ports for months. In the USA, cruises should be possible again from December. The Aida sister brand Costa Cruises from Italy had only canceled individual trips at the end of October and shortened others due to the exit restrictions in force in Europe.
The US cruise giant Carnival recently announced that it had made practically no money in the summer. Revenue for the year fell by 99.5 percent to $ 31 million. The bottom line was a minus of around 2.5 billion euros. For the remaining three months of the year, the company had expected to lose an average of $ 530 million each. That would be another 1.5 billion euros minus in the fourth quarter. The Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund got involved in the spring. The share has lost more than two thirds of its value since the beginning of the year.
The company had already announced that it wanted to part with 18 ships. Last year Carnival had an average of 92,000 employees on its ships across the Group, as well as 12,000 full-time and 2,000 part-time or seasonal workers.
.