Carnival Corp subsidiary P&O Cruises Australia has revealed that it has sold two of its older cruiseships to as-yet undisclosed interests.

The Sydney-based company announced on Monday that the 70,300-gt Pacific Dawn (built 1991) and 55,800-gt Pacific Aria (built 1994) will be handed over to their respective new owners in the first quarter of 2021.

They will be replaced in the P&O Australia fleet by the 109,000-gt cruiseships Golden Princess (built 2001) and Star Princess (built 2002), which will be transferred across from Princess Cruises, another Carnival subsidiary.

P&O Australia President Sture Myrmell described the sale and transfers as being part of an ongoing fleet transformation process.

"When we embarked on this transformation two years ago, we committed to refresh the fleet over time and to set the brand up for continued success” Myrmell told cruise industry media on Monday.

No pricing details have been revealed, nor have the identities of the buyers been disclosed.

Well-placed cruise industry sources suggest that the Pacific Aria has been sold to the Global Maritime Group (GMG)of Greece, parent company of UK-based CMV Cruises and its German affiliate Transocean Kreuzfahrten.

GMG has been an active buyer of second-hand cruiseships, the last two of which were acquired from Carnival. Earlier this year the company acquired P&O Australia’s 55,500-gt Pacific Eden (built 1993). Renamed Vasco da Gama, the ship spends half the year operating for CMV and the other half operating for Transocean.

Two weeks ago CMV announced that Transocean’s 20,700-gt Astor (built 1987) would be transferred across to a newly-formed French subsidiary that would operate it under the name Jules Verne.

The Pacific Aria is thought to be the replacement vessel for the Astor in the German market.

Carnival is actively pruning older cruiseships from its asset portfolio, offloading between two to three ships per year.

This year, in addition to Pacific Eden, the company handed over P&O Australia’s 70,000-gt Pacific Jewel (built 1990) to Jalesh Cruises of India, Holland America’s 38,800-gt Prinsendam (built 1989) to Germany’s Phoenix Seereisen, and P&O Cruises UK’s 69,800-gt Oriana (built 1995) to new Chinese cruise operator Twinkle Travel Cruise International Co.

The sales transactions for these ships were concluded during the company’s 2018 financial year.