Carnival CEO says cruise industry always combated worldwide diseases

Carnival Corp. CEO Arnold Donald hopes scientists and officials align on coronavirus protocols in the coming weeks to help his industry.

Carnival Cruise Line won’t be sharing its coronavirus health protocols yet, the company’s CEO said Monday.

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Carnival Corporation CEO Arnold Donald told Cruise Industry News the cruise company is working on its health protocols with the help of medical experts, scientists and CDC guidelines, but that it wouldn’t release them until “the U.S. society is in a better place to be socially gathering.”

“I think we’ve got to let this thing play out a bit so we are thinking about it in the right context at the right time,” Arnold told the trade magazine.

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“We’re not sailing any guests,” Arnold added. “We’re monitoring, we’re being informed by experts around the world. We work very closely with some of the best minds in the world. There is no reason to be talking about a lot of protocols if we’re not sailing anybody.”

Carnival’s Victory cruise ship in 2014. (iStock)

He said it also doesn’t make sense to make big protocol decisions and announcements since so many best practices are changing as scientists learn more about the coronavirus.

“This stuff is constantly evolving,” he said. “To be a chatterbox right now about protocols doesn’t make a lot of sense.”

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Last month, Carnival announced it would extend its pause on sailing through Sept. 30. Previously, it was set to reopen eight cruises on Aug. 1.

Though it will still be several months before Carnival operates in U.S. waters, the company’s brand AIDA is scheduled to resume operations on three ships in Germany in August.

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The coronavirus caused Carnival to lose $4.37 billion in the second quarter over canceled cruises, FOX Business previously reported. Overall, Carnival’s revenue dropped by 85 percent compared to last year.

In June, the company sold one of its ships and had formal plans to sell at least five others. Carnival intends to sell 9 percent of its fleet, about 13 ships.

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