- Hellenic Seaways’ ARIADNE is starting a two-month charter with GNV. She arrived in Genoa on October 10. In Greek waters her place will be taken by NISSOS SAMOS. ARIADNE will operate a couple of trips on Genoa – Tunis before switching to Palermo – Civitavecchia.
- NISSOS RODOS is on a two-month charter to Caronte & Tourist / TTT Lines on Salerno – Messina. In Greece she is replaced by the NISSOS MYKONOS.
- Finally, NISSOS CHIOS has arrived back in Greece after her long charter to Baleària.
Africa Morocco Link (AML) is about to start a new passenger ferry line from Almeria to Nador, presumably in mid October.
To make this possible, the company will move ro-pax DIAGORAS from its actual route Algeciras -Tanger Med, leaving MORROCO STAR as the sole vessel on the ‘short’ route, until a third vessel can be found.
AML began operations in 2016, and was founded by Attica Group and BMCE Bank (51% by the businessman Othman Benjelloun and Attica Group 49%).
The new line on the ‘long’ route is in direct competition with Trasmediterranea.
Photo © AML
Irish Ferries’s new €144 million ferry will be christened W.B. YEATS, after Ireland’s most-loved poet.
The name was chosen after it had drawn ‘strong support’ from the public in a competition that attracted nearly 100,000 entries.
William Butler Yeats was born in Dublin and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. The choice continues the tradition adopted by the company of selecting names drawn from the world of Irish literature.
Photo © Irish Ferries
As from 2021, three companies instead of the actual one company –Hurtigruten–could share the coastal route between Bergen and Kirkeness. According to the Norwegian Ministry of Transport and Communications, between five and ten shipping companies have reported their interest in applying for the tender, or for parts of it.
The possible changes create a lot of buzz in the local media. One of the arising questions is about the ownership of the name Hurtigruten. It is very understandable that the actual company Hurtigruten does not want to see other operators working under the same banner. But legal experts say Hurtigruten cannot claim any trademark protection.
Source: NRK – Photo © Mike Louagie
Since TS (Tallinna Sadam = Port of Tallin) took over the ferry services to
the Estonian islands of Saaremma and Hiiumaa, the passenger traffic has been growing by 6%.
Under the name Praamid , the company operates four new ferries, two built in Turkey, two in Poland. Now it seems that four ferries is not enough, and an extra €4 million has been added to the 2018 budget for the summer charter of a (still to be decided) fifth vessel.
Chartering is a short-term solution. In cooperation with the minister of transport, TS is looking at the possibility to order a fifth new vessel.
In the meanwhile, ferry HIIUMAA left Estonia, bound for Kiel, where she arrived on October 7. German company Conmar Shipping GmbH has acquired her.
During winter HIIUMAA will be prepared for a new charter in the Baltic Sea.
Sistership MUHUMAA is laid up in Bremerhaven, and SAAREMAA is operating the Elbe ferry route Cuxhaven-Brunsbüttel. Elb-Link, the ferry company behind this route had asked the Governments of Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony to help rescue the ferry line.
Photo: one of the four new ferries © Praamid
Ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne has confirmed membership of its new Community Board. The creation of the twelve-member, independent board was a key element of the company’s winning bid for the Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service contract last year and will be a strong community voice on strategic ferry issues. The Board is completely independent from the company and no CalMac representative will sit on it.
Just like last year, port of Ghent is at its highest level ever for its overall cargo traffic in the first nine months of this year. At the end of this year, the Belgian port will register a record for the second time in a row.
Ro-ro cargo saw an increase of +13,56% in Q3. One of the reasons is the introduction of a fourth ship by DFDS, the ARK GERMANIA.
DFDS has now 8 calls a week between Ghent and Gothenburg.
Photo: ARK GERMANIA © DFDS
Rolls-Royce has signed a deal with Google to develop further its intelligent awareness systems which are making existing vessels safer and are essential to making autonomous ships a reality.
The agreement allows Rolls-Royce to use Google’s Cloud Machine Learning Engine to further train the company’s artificial-intelligence-based object classification system for detecting, identifying and tracking the objects a vessel can encounter at sea.
Photo © Rolls-Royce
In Q3, Wasaline saw an increase on all segments.
- Passengers: 77,,806 (+3,4%)
- Cars: 20,218 (+8,7%)
- Freight lane meters: 72,776 (24,4%)
Wasaline operates WASA EXPRESS between Vaasa and Umeå.
TT-Line, operating ferries between Sweden, Germany and Poland, has decided to have the ferry PETER PAN lengthened by 30m.
In early 2018 the ro-pax will go to Bremerhaven, where German Drydocks will do the job. The vessel will also get a new bow, with improved fuel consumption characteristics. The process will take two months.
Photo © TT Line