Carnival Fuel Efficiency Gains Over 5% in Fiscal Q2 2026

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3▲2 ▼0Impact / 5
Summary · why it matters

Carnival Corporation improved fuel efficiency by more than 5% in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, building on a gain of more than 6% last year, as the company reported net income of $569 million, up more than 20% year over year despite a nearly 30% increase in fuel price. Cruise costs excluding fuel per available lower berth day were essentially flat year over year, compared with the approximately 2.5% increase anticipated in the company's March guidance, and the ex-fuel cost improvement contributed five cents per share to the quarter's outperformance, while improvements in depreciation expense and fuel consumption added one cent per share. For fiscal 2026, Carnival expects cruise costs excluding fuel per available lower berth day to increase approximately 1.3% on a normalized basis, with favorable movements in depreciation expense, fuel consumption, fuel mix, net interest expense and other income expected to provide eight cents per share of operational favorability. Among peers, Royal Caribbean Group generated adjusted EBITDA of $1.8 billion and an EBITDA margin of 38% in the second quarter of 2026, with net cruise costs per available passenger cruise day excluding fuel up 3.9% year over year, and it expects $1.3 billion of fuel expense for 2026 with 58% of remaining fuel consumption hedged. Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings identified an additional $100 million of annualized savings and cash benefits in the second quarter, bringing actions announced over the past two quarters to approximately $225 million, and revised its full-year adjusted net cruise cost excluding fuel outlook to a decline of approximately 25 basis points.

Impact on assets 3

Consumer Discretionary▲ · 3 stocks
Carnival Corporation
CCL
▲ PositiveCapitalrelevance

Carnival reported Q2 fiscal 2026 net income of $569M, up over 20% YoY, with fuel efficiency gains and flat ex-fuel costs driving EPS outperformance.

Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings Ltd
NCLH
▲ PositiveCapitalrelevance

Norwegian identified an additional $100M of annualized savings and cash benefits, bringing total actions to ~$225M, and revised its ex-fuel cost outlook to a ~25bp decline.

Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd
RCL
± MixedCapitalrelevance

Royal Caribbean is cited for comparison with $1.8B adjusted EBITDA and 38% margin, but its ex-fuel costs rose 3.9% YoY, a mixed context mention.

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