JAMIE CARR: Carnival Corp: cruising for a bruising
The company will have a mighty job to regain the trust of its customers
The Carnival Corp, which accounts for approximately 40% of the global cruise industry, was no stranger to controversy even before the global pandemic. The sinking of its Costa Concordia in 2012 was swiftly followed by the "poop cruise" in 2013, where failed generators led to raw sewage all over the passenger areas. It was fined $40m in 2017 for dumping oily waste at sea, and another $20m in 2019 for unloading faecal coliform off Alaska. But the impact of Covid-19 has unprecedented ramifications.
In February, its Diamond Princess suffered over 700 infections and eight deaths among its passengers and crew, yet the company kept on cruising. The Grand Princess was stuck off San Francisco in March, with its mostly elderly passengers confined to their cabins as the deaths mounted up. At the end of March its Zaandam was sailing up the west coast of South America with multiple cases on board after Chile closed its ports...
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