MIAMI — Carnival Corporation & plc saw net income jump to $1.2 billion in the third quarter of the year, up from $934 million the previous year.

Revenues for the third quarter of 2014 were $4.9 billion, compared with $4.7 billion the prior year.

Carnival Corporation & plc President and Chief Executive Officer Arnold Donald noted, “Strong close-in demand and higher onboard spending helped drive significantly better than expected third quarter results and 15% year-over-year earnings improvement. Our Asia operations performed particularly well during the quarter, driven by a double-digit yield increase in our China program, further solidifying our industry leading presence in this important emerging cruise market.

“Our continental European operations also enjoyed strong yield and profit improvement in the quarter, reflecting continued progress for the Costa brand. In addition, our summer Caribbean product successfully attracted nearly 20% more guests than the prior year, reinforcing the popularity of the world’s largest cruising region,” Donald added.

At this time, cumulative advance bookings for the first half of 2015 are ahead of the prior year at higher prices. Over the last quarter, fleetwide booking volumes for the first half of 2015 have been running ahead of the prior year at higher prices.

“The sustained improvement in booking trends as we have progressed through the year combined with yield increases in the second half of 2014 builds confidence that we will see continued yield growth in 2015 and beyond,” said Donald. He also noted that new product initiatives and innovative marketing campaigns implemented across the brands over the past year are driving the improvement in consumer demand and pricing trends.