'We're not worried,' president and ceo Arnold Donald responded. 'In general, there's still not a huge capacity increase in the industry. We're helping by being very measured,' he added.
According to Seatrade Insider, the current orderbook consists of 31 firmly contracted ocean-going cruise ships totaling 100,075 berths for delivery through 2019, not counting options. Of those, the Carnival group has a modest eight newbuilds—Costa Diadema this year, P&O Cruises' Britannia and AIDA Cruises' AIDAprima in 2015; Holland America Line's Koningsdam, Carnival Vista, a Seabourn ship and an AIDA vessel in 2016; and a Princess ship in 2017.
There may be capacity withdrawals. Donald confirmed plans to sell the smaller Princess vessel, Ocean Princess. The 688-berth ship, built in 1999 as R Four, has been on the market.
Also, deployment makes a difference, the Carnival chief pointed out. Concerns arise when berths are clustered in a region.
'It's a big planet,' he said.
Carnival cfo David Bernstein added that quite a bit of demand growth is expected in emerging markets, particularly Asia and China. This should help absorb capacity and also will benefit established markets.
Plus, Donald said: 'Measured capacity growth overall is a very good thing.'
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