22 systems on more than 75 per cent of vessels. It has even loftier aspirations for 2050: send all waste to waste-to-energy facilities, extend shore power capabilities to the full fleet, achieve net carbon neutral ship operations, and build zeroemissions vessels. “We’d already made such good progress with the previous targets that we increased them all to keep challenging ourselves to do better,” says Weinstein. “To date, the industry doesn’t have a foolproof solution for reaching net-zero carbon emissions and I don’t think there ever will be a onesize-fits-all solution that we can roll out to every ship in the cruise industry. We’ll most likely achieve decarbonisation by using a multitude of different technologies in tandem with each other.” For example, AIDA Cruises is trialling fuel cells powered by hydrogen derived from methanol on AIDAnova, a lithiumion battery power system on AIDAperla, and the world’s largest battery storage system on AIDAprima. Meanwhile, Costa Cruises is testing biofuels and working with methanol producer Proman to pave the way for both newbuilds and existing ships to operate on sustainable methanol. Carnival Corporation has also invested in devices like food biodigesters to enable it to further eliminate greenhouse gas emissions. There are 600 operating on ships across the fleet, using microorganisms to naturally break down the waste food particles, forming a clear, environmentally safe effluent. “As far as I’m aware, we’re the only cruise company to have invested in food biodigesters but they’re really helping us to cut food waste in line with our aims,” says Weinstein. “The great thing about having more than 90 ships and nine brands is that we have plenty of capacity to experiment by piloting different technologies. If any solutions prove particularly effective, we can look to roll them out to all our brands and vessels. “I’m very proud that we’ve continued to measurably reduce our impact on the environment and continue investing in new technologies, despite the turbulent times the industry has faced in the last three years.” Carnival Corporation has also spent the last three years analysing and evaluating each brand to identify how it can optimise everything from ships to processes to ensure that they are all delivering the best possible guest experience and achieving good operational, environmental and financial performance. As part of this process, the corporation has retired or sold 26 vessels from its fleet. “We were planning to retire these vessels anyway within the next few years as they were older and less efficient, so we decided to accelerate that timeline,” says Weinstein. “During this time, though, we’ve also taken delivery of larger and more efficient ships, which will result in nearly a quarter of our fleet consisting of new capacity. The fleet transformation results in an eight-percentage point increase in balcony cabins, along with a tremendous rise in available real estate onboard our vessels. This will enable brands to deliver more differentiated onboard experiences and generate associated revenues contributing to durable revenue growth going forward.” Now that all of Carnival Corporation’s ships are back in service and both travel restrictions and Covidrelated protocols have been relaxed, booking volumes have strengthened and the booking curve has measurably lengthened across the board. “This bodes well for 2023 as more markets open for cruise travel, protocols SkyDome is a two-level pool and entertainment area on the top deck of P&O Cruises’ new ship Arvia KEYNOTE Photo: Christopher Ison  ©
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