Early morning in Öresund. Photo: Pär-Henrik Sjöström

Ferry shipping:
Trailers better than passenger
DFDS Seaways chose to close down a passenger service from Sweden to UK and Norwegian Fjord Line gave up on the UK service from Bergen and sold it to DFDS, but continues to sail on the Bergen–Hanstholm run. In general it looks like this: Passenger transportation is yielding, unless the ferry sails on a holiday corridor. Ro-ro shipping in general sees much better times.

Several ferry routes between Finland and Sweden go through the archipelagoes of Turku and Stockholm. Photo: Pär-Henrik Sjöström

The Baltic Sea:
a market full of challenges
Variable is perhaps a suitable word to describe the ferry scene in the Baltic Sea area today. There is a distinct division between the expanding markets in Eastern Europe and the mature markets in the West. A general trend is that cargo traffic is increasing, while the situation regarding passenger volumes on many routes is static.

Photo: Color Line

Steering for growth in a mature market
The mature ferry market in Western Europe is tackling challenges from low-cost air travel, new holiday concepts and rising fuel costs. A good number of ferry services have been forced to close, others are up for sale. Norway’s Color Line, however, is going against the trend with an investment programme of EUR 875 million in new ships by 2008.

Fjord Line’s Atlantic Traveller. Photo: Fjordline

Fjord Line – a new lease of life
Beleaguered Fjord Line – now controlled by Fjord Line Holding – has just got a new lease of life with a new managing director backed up by new investors. Fresh capital was just what was needed to save the ferry operator, which has not had a good hand in an increasingly competitive market.

The Pride of Telemark, 28,559 GT, built in 1983 by Chantier du Nord et de la Méditerranée in Dunkirk, has a capacity of 1,500 passengers and 350 cars. She is owned by GA Ferries and chartered in by Kystlink. The vessel is seen here leaving Langesund, Norway. Photo: Kystlink

Langesund–Strömstad
against all odds
Kystlink’s car/passenger ferry Pride of Telemark began sailing – many would say against all the odds – between Langesund, Norway, and Strömstad, Sweden, on November 1, after negotiating all sorts of legal and technical obstacles in the last twelve months. The first few sailings did not get off to a fabulous start, partly because of bad weather, but it will take time to break into what was virtually a Color Line monopoly on ferry traffic between Norway and Strömstad.

“We are very pleased with the first season”, says the Master Ferries CEO Svein Olaf Olsen. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen

Master Ferries: Low-fare concept a success
The Norwegian ferry operator Master Ferries has now stopped sailings for this season and is awaiting the spring of 2007 before entering the market again. When entering the market again in 2007, Master Ferries will probably be doing so with another HSC (High Speed Catamaran) ferry. At present Master Ferries CEO Svein Olaf Olsen is negotiating the purchase of a bigger ferry capable of taking lorries and coaches between Kristiansand, Norway, and Hanstholm, Denmark.

Crown of Scandinavia has stopped calling at Helsingborg on the voyage
from Copenhagen to Oslo. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen

DFDS Seaways: Drops Sweden and strengthens Norway
DFDS Seaways, the passenger division of the DFDS Group, is fighting to adjust its activities to the real world around the company. The company has stopped all its sailings from Sweden in the last couple of months, but on the other hand purchased a new service out of Norway, giving the company another leg on the real tax-free sales on board.

The total number of passengers declined by two per cent during the first eight months this year compared to the same period last year. Car transports fell by three per cent, but goods units rose by two per cent over the period. Photo: Pär-Henrik Sjöström

Strong growth in Poland service
Stena Line reports strong growth in Poland services and would in time like to increase the volume of the Karlskrona–Gdansk route. At the same time business is getting tougher on the North Sea, but next year the company will be launching the world’s two largest ro-pax vessels, to enable a rise in goods, car and passenger traffic on the North Sea.

Prinsesse Benedikte from the Vogelfluglinie, threatened by a Fehrmarn bridge sometime in the future. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen

Scandlines: Sold or not sold?
Scandlines A/G is surely the ferry operator that has gained the most media coverage over the past 12 months. The announcement of the sale of the company, jointly owned by the Danish Ministry of Transport and Deutsche Bahn, which is the state owned railway company in Germany, started an avalanche of articles on what will happen, who will buy, fear of the future, possibilities of a purchase.

Bornholmstrafikken is trying to replace the HSC-ferry Villum Clausen due to high fuel costs. Photo: Bent Mikkelsen

Bornholmstrafikken: Complicated traffic to an island in the Baltic
Bornholmstrafikken A/S runs the ferry service to and from the island of Bornholm on an exclusive basis. But there is no doubt that, despite these terms, it is one of the most difficult operations on the Danish ferry scene. The company runs four ferries on two all year round services and one summer service. All operations are combined passenger and vehicle services.

The Tom Sawyer leaving Trelleborg. Photo: TT-Line

So far business as usual in Trelleborg
Usually well-informed sources indicate that a new ferry service between Sweden’s southernmost city Trelleborg and Swinoujscie in Poland is only weeks away. According to representatives from the two large companies involved in service between Trelleborg and Germany, TT-Line and Scandlines will not be involved in the new service. Apparently, we will see a newcomer in the classic ferry-port.

Ferries in the port of Ystad. Photo: Ystad Hamn Logistik AB

High pressure on Polish railway ferries
Despite road congestion and truck smog floating above the cities of Swinoujscie and Ystad, it is mostly road transports and not the environmentally sound railway transports that get the go-ahead. The choice is based mainly on price and the time needed to carry the goods. It seems, however, that some factors or parts of the price are left out in favour of logistic calculations.

Gotlandia II is the newest vessel in the ferry traffic to Gotland. Photo: Destination Gotland

Autumn – a new season in the Gotland traffic
Gotland increases its attraction also after the summer season. The number of passengers has grown steadily in the autumn. All time high for October was recorded this year with close to 85,500 passengers.

The ro-pax ferry Finneagle discharging trucks from two decks simultaneously in the port of Naantali. Photo: Pär-Henrik Sjöström

Finnlines increasing capacity on key routes
Finnlines has evolved into a main player in the field of combined transports of cargo and passengers on the Baltic Sea. The fleet of today includes a large number of modern ro-pax ferries.

Viking Line is well prepared for the challenges of the future. Photo: Pär-Henrik Sjöström

Viking Line starts fleet renewal
About a year ago, Viking Line announced having placed an order for a newbuilding for the Helsinki–Tallinn route with Aker Yards in Finland. This will be the first newbuilding in the Viking Line fleet since 1989. Now Viking Line also has plans for the new Ålandsfärjan.

Eckerö Linjen’s ferries Eckerö (left) and Roslagen in the ferry port at Eckerö, Åland. Photo: Pär-Henrik Sjöström

Eckerö Linjen: instant success with new vessel
Last spring Eckerö Linjen introduced a new large ferry on the Eckerö–Grisslehamn route. After that there has been a considerable growth in the passenger volumes. The previous shift of generation of the ferry tonnage employed by Eckerö Linjen between Eckerö and Grisslehamn appeared in 1987, when the Papenburg sister Roslagen was acquired and refurbished for this service.

RG Line’s ro-pax vessel RG I. Passangers are not cruising across Kvarken as they used to do during the tax-free days. Now the ferry route is purely for transportation. Photo: RG Line

Freight keeps Northern route alive
There is a continuous growth in the freight traffic on the ferry route across Kvarken in the Gulf of Botnia. For this purpose the ro-pax vessel RG I is most suitable. Today it is difficult to believe that in the 1990’s almost one million passengers travelled between Finland and Sweden on the ferry route across Kvarken. It was a flourishing business due to the tax-free trade with a variety of short cruises. However the number of passengers dropped almost overnight when the era of tax-free ended in 1999.

Three Tallink ferries under different flags meet in Stockholm: From onboard the Estonia-flagged Romantika (far right) the Finland-flagged Silja Serenade and the Latvia-flagged Regina Baltica is seen. Photo: Madli Vitismann

Sweden the meeting point for Tallink’s lines
Right now is a busy time for Tallink: having bought both Superfast ferries and Silja Line, it is time for the company to start utilising the advantages these purchases have given them. But none of the shipping company’s competitors have disappeared from its main line, the Helsinki route.

Via Mare calls at Paldiski South late at night, always in the dark. Photo: Madli Vitismann

Via Mare on a tight shedule
Baltic Scandinavian Lines, founded a year ago, continues to run to a tight schedule on the Paldiski–Kapellskär line. One departure in each direction seven times per week means that everything has to be precisely on time.

The Vironia was introduced in Sillamäe in February. Photo: Madli Vitismann

Challenging the main routes
The Saaremaa Shipping Company, which last year opened a completely new ferry service to Latvia, has this year launched an even newer one to Finland.

The Regula leaving the Kuivastu port for Virtsu. Photo: Madli Vitismann

New Hiiumaa ship needed
The Saaremaa Shipping Company has reinforced its position on the routes between the Estonian mainland and its biggest islands in time for the looming concession deadline and is planning an order for the first of its very own ferries.