P&O Princess Cruises, the UK cruise operator, has avoided paying a hefty $200m (€191m) fee for getting out of its joint venture with Royal Caribbean, a US rival.

P&O Princess and Royal Caribbean agreed from the outset that if the joint venture did not receive a certain number of cruise bookings by January 1, 2003 it could be abandoned at no cost to either side. If P&O Princess had agreed a deal with Carnival last year it would have triggered the $200m payout.