Carnival Cruise to Raise Summer Prices Up to 5 Percent

Carnival Corp & Plc’s flagship unit Carnival Cruise Lines said it will increase its prices by up to 5 percent for all summer sailings, following strong wave-season bookings at the cruise operator. The wave season, traditionally the busiest booking period for the cruise industry, runs from about mid-January through early spring.

“While pricing has not fully recovered to 2008 levels, we are increasing prices and will implement an across-the-board increase effective March 22,” Carnival Cruise Lines Chief Executive Gerry Cahill said in a statement.

The company did not comment on pricing changes at its other brands. Travel agents fear that they will run out of inventory to sell this wave season due to rise in bookings, analyst Janet Brashear at Bernstein Research wrote in a note to clients.

This was also consistent with the bullish outlook given by Carnival Corp rival Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd, Brashear said.

“This positive news about the wave season reignites investor sentiment surrounding the industry as demand continues to increase, and as CCL meaningfully works to reduce the cruise traveler’s reliance on discounting,” JP Morgan analyst Kevin Milota said.

Last month, Royal Caribbean posted a surprise fourth-quarter profit and said it sees encouraging 2010 bookings.

“Recent channel checks indicate bookings are also strong across the industry brand spectrum. We believe close-in bookings also remain strong, likely enhanced by unprecedented cold/snowy weather in the eastern United States,” Wells Fargo analyst Tim Conder said in a note.

For period from Jan. 1 through Feb. 21, Carnival Cruise Lines said bookings were at unprecedented levels for the line’s 22 ships. Carnival’s announcement was worth another percentage point of net revenue yield, analyst Brashear said.