P&O Cruises Australia has become the latest Carnival Corp brand to announce the departure of a cruiseship from its fleet a year earlier than planned.
The Australian line announced on Monday that 70,300-gt Pacific Dawn (built 1991) has been sold and will leave the fleet immediately.
No details on pricing or the future role of the ship were given.
Last year, the company tied up a deal to sell the Pacific Dawn, together with the 55,900-gt Pacific Aria (built 1994) to Global Maritime Group, the tonnage provider of UK operator Cruises & Maritime Voyages (CMV).
Both ships were to have been handed over to their new operator in 2021, but the deal soured after CMV went into liquidation in July after succumbing to the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.
They have recently been idling off Cyprus after arriving from Asia in late August.
P&O Australia has not released any details about the future of the Pacific Aria.
It is unlikely that the company would want to return the ship to Australia for the few months remaining of its cruise schedule given that Australian authorities continue to maintain a blanket ban on cruiseships and have so far given no indication on when it might be lifted.
The Pacific Dawn sale brings the number of ships Carnival Corp has sold since the pandemic outbreak to 15. Of these, 10 were sold for further trading and five for scrap.
Carnival recently said it would be selling a total of 18 ships, representing a 12% decline of pre-Covid-19 capacity but only 3% of 2019 operating income.
