Carnival Australia aims to double capacity by decade end

Carnival Australia will look to carrying 700,000 cruise passengers on its ships by the end of this decade, and it plans to do this by introducing four or five more new ships into its fleet.

This cruise season, Carnival Australia plans to carry some 300,000 passengers across all its brands, a 60,000 jump on last year after the introduction of the Pacific Jewel into its P&O Cruises fleet.  This figure is expected to increase to 350,000 with the introduction of the Pacific Pearl next year.

“Australia for us is still a growth market,” said David Dingle, Carnival Australia Management Committee Chairman as well as Carnival UK CEO.  “Unlike other places in the world where we consider cruise to be a maturing market... Australia is still growing.”

He foresees that the company will introduce four or five more ships into the Australian-based fleet by the end of the decade, with the majority going to P&O Cruises and also one or two going to Princess Cruises.

But Mr Dingle warns that Carnival Australia may have to be careful in its growth plans in regards to itineraries which include Sydney, particularly in regards to ships.

“Fortunately within the Carnival Corporation we do have ships which will be able to get under the bridge, so in the short term we can move ships from other parts to continue to supplement the Australian fleet,” notes Mr Dingle.

“But I’m looking further down the track as we feed larger, and more importantly newer ships into the Australian fleet,” he continues. “I am keenly aware, in terms of long term strategy, cruise ships are getting bigger and that fewer and fewer ships will be able to get under the [Sydney Harbour] Bridge.”

This may result in Carnival basing their ships elsewhere around the country.  When asked if New Zealand was an option, Mr Dingle was reluctant to commit to growth there, saying that Carnival will “wait and see” how the demand fares for the Pacific Pearl next year first.

“We’ll have to see how the New Zealand market bites on that opportunity, and that’s going to tell us a lot more about how much growth we can create in New Zealand.

“The bigger market, around 85% of the population we’re addressing here [in this region], is in Australia.”

Growth is also expected in Carnival’s eDocs initiative which will see the company move towards a paperless ticketing solution.  Mr Dingle hinted that this could even be implemented before year’s end.