Carnival and other major cruise companies suspend operations through the summer

Cities and states across the nation may be slowly reopening from their pandemic-related shutdowns, but cruise ships will remain closed for business this summer.

Carnival Corp., the world’s largest cruise operator, said Monday that it was canceling all trips on its Carnival Cruise Line brand through Sept. 30. The company had previously said it would try to resume some cruise operations on Aug. 1.

Carnival’s announcement comes a weekend after the Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), an industry trade group representing the major cruise companies, said its members would not be sailing before at least Sept. 15. Another one of those members, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, had already announced a suspension in its operations through the end of September.

Cruise operators, including Carnival, Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian, have been operating under a “no sail” order from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The order, which the CDC has already extended once, is currently in effect through July 24.

“Although we had hoped that cruise activity could resume as soon as possible after that date, it is increasingly clear that more time will be needed to resolve barriers to resumption in the United States,” the CLIA said in its statement announcing its members’ voluntary decision to remain closed to passengers through at least mid-September.

Carnival last week signaled that it was bracing for the possibility of more—and costly—delays in bringing passengers back to its ships, after the global onset of COVID-19 shut down the industry in March. The company on Thursday reported second-quarter losses of $4.4 billion, and said it expected to burn an additional $650 million per month for the rest of 2020.