Carnival Corporation’s subsidiary company P&O Cruises Australia unveiled the accelerated retirement for one of its ships as part of the Corporation's previously announced plan to remove older and less efficient vessels from its global fleet. Pacific Dawn ship is said to have been sold for further service.
The P&O Australia’s press release said that it had previously been announced the 1546-passenger ship Pacific Dawn had been due to leave P&O AU's fleet in February 2021. However, she would "now leave in the coming weeks to facilitate her sale.”
Pacific Dawn's sale had been announced earlier this year to become part of the UK-based CMV-Cruise & Maritime Voyages. She was part of a 2-ship deal along with Pacific Aria with P&O scheduled to deliver both vessels in early 2021. Carnival Corporation had included both ships in its earlier announcement about the number of liners it said would be departing the fleet.
However, CMV later went into administration/bankruptcy in the UK. The CMV ships (though owned by a separate company) were scheduled for auction in order to pay outstanding debts. The former CMV CEO has been working to re-establish the brand and recently agreed to buy assets of the travel agency business, such as the database and reservation systems, from the administrator.
P&O Australia has currently canceled all sailings through December 2020 and when it resumes operations intends to add two bigger cruise ships previously operated by Princess.