Carnival is selling 6 cruise ships after a $4.4 billion loss, a sign of the industry's bleak future in the coronavirus pandemic

The Coral Princess, part of Carnival Cruises' Princess Cruise line. 

Princess Cruises

• Carnival Cruises, which includes brands such as P&O, Princess Cruises and Cunard, is to sell 6 ships amid a downturn caused by the coronavirus crisis.
• The industry has been hammered by COVID-19 after multiple outbreaks occurred at sea, and ports around the world closed to cruise ships. 
• Carnival said it lost $4.4 billion in the past three months and doesn't know when it can resume normal operations.

Carnival is planning to sell 6 of its cruise ships after reporting a loss of $4.4 billion in the second quarter of 2020, as the coronavirus crisis continues to hammer the cruise industry.

The company, which includes major cruise lines such as Cunard, P&O and Princess Cruises, reported on Thursday that it was "accelerating" planned sales of the ships.

It reported a massive drop its revenues in the three-month period to May 31, taking in $700 million, a fraction of its $4.8 billion revenues for the same period in 2019, The Guardian reported. 

The company said it was "unable to definitively predict" when cruises will back to normal, making it impossible to make an earnings forecast. 

All its cruises were suspended in mid-March after onboard outbreaks were reported. Across the industry, by March 25 there had been coronavirus outbreaks on 36 cruise ships worldwide, as Business Insider reported. 

Although Carnival has offered customers the chance to pause their bookings for a future date, half of them requested a cash refund, the company said.

Meanwhile, administration and keeping ships afloat still cost the company $250 million a month.

An estimated 21,000 ship staff are still stuck on board 49 ships which cannot dock due to governmental restrictions, the company said.