Costa Concordia has been
declared a total loss, and the
fire-damaged Allegra will be
sold or scrapped.
CARNIVAL Corp, owner of the Costa
Concordia which dramatically sunk off the
Italian coast in January, has received US$515
million insurance recoverable after the ship
was written off.
Releasing its first-quarter results on Friday,
Carnival’s Chief Operating Officer Howard
Frank revealed that Costa bookings had
plummeted by 90% in the first four weeks after
the Concordia accident and sales are still down
by about 40% to 50%.
The normally profitable Carnival Corp reported
an overall first-quarter loss of US$139 million.
But Howard said there had been less impact
on the company’s other brands, especially
Carnival Cruise Lines, and sailings in Alaska and
the Caribbean.
It was also revealed by British newspaper
‘The Daily Mail’ that Concordia was not the
first ship damaged by Captain Francesco
Schettino, who allegedly crashed the Aida Blu
in June 2010 as he entered a port in Germany.
Meanwhile, Costa Allegra has been deemed
too expensive to repair after it caught fire
while sailing last month in the Indian Ocean.
According to media reports, Carnival
executives told Wall Street analysts that they
had been trying to sell the much smaller and
older Allegra before the incident, and it would
now be sold for a bargain price or scrapped.
Starting this weekend, Costa plans to replace
the 1,000-passenger ship with the 927-
passenger Costa Voyager to take over Allegra’s
remaining European cruises.
As a result of the redeployment, Voyager’s
scheduled sailings in the Red Sea have been
cancelled.
Full refunds and a 30% credit have been
offered to people who had booked the suspended
‘Corals and Ancient Treasures’ itineraries.
Carnival’s chairman and CEO Micky Arison
said in a statement that the company was
confident it could “restore consumer faith” in
the Costa brand, which has “a deep-rooted
Italian heritage spanning more than 60 years”.
Further announcements about changes
within Carnival are expected in coming weeks.
