What is the carbon footprint of a cruise?
About 89 kg of CO₂e per passenger per day on Carnival’s fleet in 2025 and about 126 kg on Norwegian Cruise Line’s, from the ships’ fuel alone. A seven-night cruise is therefore roughly 620 to 880 kg per passenger before the flight to the port. Per kilometre that is about 185 g per passenger, more than twice a long-haul economy flight.
Cruise lines now publish their own emissions, audited, for the whole fleet. That makes it possible to answer the question with real numbers instead of the estimates that circulate online. This page uses the 2025 figures from the two largest operators that report per passenger capacity, converts them to a per-passenger footprint, compares a cruise with flying and ferries, and shows where the often-quoted “250 grams per kilometre” comes from.
Per passenger per day
Cruise lines report emissions against capacity: berths, counted at two guests per cabin. Ships often sail fuller than that, with third and fourth guests in some cabins, so the footprint per passenger is a little lower than per berth. Using each company’s own passenger and berth days:
| Operator | Per berth per day | Occupancy | Per passenger per day | Per passenger-km |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Carnival Corporation (Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Costa, AIDA, P&O, Cunard and others) | 94 kg | 105% | 89.2 kg | 185 g |
| Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings (Norwegian, Oceania, Regent Seven Seas) | 129.8 kg | 103.5% | 125.5 kg | not published |
Carnival reports 94 kg of CO₂e per available lower berth day and 195 g per berth-kilometre for its 2025 financial year, from ship fuel, verified by LRQA; it carried 101.7 million passenger cruise days against 96.5 million berth days. Norwegian reports 3,172,087 tonnes of direct (Scope 1) emissions for 2025 and 25,278,352 passenger cruise days in its annual report; dividing one by the other gives 125.5 kg per passenger day. One likely reason for Norwegian’s higher figure is its fleet mix: its Oceania and Regent lines run smaller luxury ships with more space per guest. Royal Caribbean Group, the other large operator, reports its intensity per gross tonne-nautical mile, which cannot be turned into a per-passenger figure, so it is not in the table.
Per day is the more useful unit for a cruise. A cruise ship is a floating hotel as well as transport: it burns fuel for power, air conditioning, kitchens and entertainment around the clock, including in port.
Compared with flying and ferries
Per passenger-kilometre, on the same basis (fuel burned, without upstream fuel production), using our DEFRA 2026 factors for flights and ferries:
| Mode | g CO₂e per passenger-km |
|---|---|
| Cruise ship (Carnival fleet average, 2025) | 185 |
| Ferry, car passenger | 129 |
| Long-haul flight, economy, with radiative forcing | 117 |
| Ferry, average passenger | 113 |
| Long-haul flight, economy, CO₂e only | 69 |
| Ferry, foot passenger | 19 |
Per kilometre, a cruise emits about 2.7 times a long-haul economy flight, or 1.6 times once the flight’s extra warming at altitude is counted (see the carbon footprint of flying). The comparison flatters neither side completely: a cruise covers a week of accommodation, meals and entertainment as well as the travel, while the flight covers only the journey.
Worked example: a seven-night cruise
- Carnival fleet average: 7 days × 89.2 kg = 624 kg of CO₂e per passenger
- Norwegian fleet average: 7 days × 125.5 kg = 878 kg of CO₂e per passenger
Add the journey to and from the port. A return long-haul flight can add as much again, or more: our train vs plane vs car calculator gives the figure for a specific route.
What these figures leave out
- Producing the fuel. The figures count fuel burned on board (“tank to wake”), not extracting and refining it.
- Everything bought for the ship. Food, supplies and shipbuilding are in the companies’ Scope 3 inventories. Carnival’s Scope 3 for June 2024 to May 2025 was 7.9 million tonnes, against 9.3 million tonnes of direct emissions.
- Getting to the ship. Guests’ flights and drives to the port are not in any of these numbers.
- Your ship and cabin. These are fleet averages. A newer, larger ship usually emits less per guest; a small luxury ship or a suite with more space per guest, more.
Is it getting better?
Carnival’s intensity fell from 103 kg per berth per day in 2023 to 100 in 2024 and 94 in 2025, and it reports the 2025 figure as a 21% cut from 2019. Carnival reports 20% of its fleet as able to run on liquefied natural gas (LNG), and says it counts the methane that escapes unburned from LNG engines in its totals. Norwegian’s direct emissions were 3,172,087 tonnes in 2025 against 3,242,719 in 2024, while its capacity grew 4.2%.
Where “250 g per km” comes from
The figure most often repeated online, about 250 g of CO₂ per passenger-kilometre, traces back to a 2010 study of cruises to and from New Zealand in 2007 (Howitt et al., Energy Policy). In that study 250 g was the lowest figure for any cruise; the range went up to 2,200 g and the weighted average was 390 g. Carnival’s audited fleet average for 2025, 185 g per passenger-km, is lower than all of them, reflecting larger and more efficient ships. Treat 250 g as dated rather than typical.
Frequently asked questions
About 89 kg of CO₂e per passenger per day on Carnival’s fleet and 126 kg on Norwegian’s (2025, ship fuel only). A seven-night cruise is roughly 620 to 880 kg per passenger, plus the journey to the port.
Per kilometre, yes: about 185 g per passenger on Carnival’s fleet against 69 g for a long-haul economy flight (117 g counting the extra warming at altitude). But a cruise also includes a week of accommodation and food, so compare whole holidays rather than kilometres.
Of the two large groups that publish per-passenger capacity figures, Carnival Corporation’s fleet averaged about 89 kg per passenger day in 2025 and Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings’ about 126 kg. Within a fleet, newer and larger ships are usually more efficient per guest.
They emit less CO₂ when burning the fuel, but some methane escapes unburned, and methane is a far stronger greenhouse gas. Carnival says its reported totals include that methane slip.
Fleet averages from the operators’ own 2025 reports are about 94 to 130 kg of CO₂e per berth per day, or 89 to 126 kg per passenger per day. Per passenger-kilometre, Carnival’s fleet averaged 185 g.
Sources: Carnival Corporation 2025 Sustainability Report (Environmental Progress Summary) and Carnival plc Annual Report 2025; Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings 2025 Sail & Sustain Report and Form 10-K for 2025; Howitt, O. J. A. et al. (2010), Energy Policy, doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2009.12.050; DEFRA 2026 conversion factors. Related: carbon footprint of flying · IMO Carbon Intensity Indicator · well-to-wake