ESPO’s General Assembly unanimously elected Zeno D’Agostino as its new Chair.
Mr D’Agostino is President of Port Network Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea since 2015 and has a long-standing career in transport and logistics. He succeeds Annaleena Mäkilä who chaired the organisation during the last two years.
The General Assembly also re-elected Daan Schalck, CEO of North Sea Port as Vice Chair.
Ansis Zeltiņš, CEO of the Port of Riga, becomes the second Vice Chair.
Port of Ystad continues to strengthen its position as one of the biggest ferry passenger ports in Sweden. This summer is no exception.
The development this year is still prosperous even if the cargo seems to slow down a bit due to the rising inflation and, not least, the war in Ukraine.
On the other hand, the passenger volumes keep on rising with a development this year, until and including September, of +12,3%. For personal cars the development is +9,3% and the number of ship calls is up +2,5%.
The Port of Valencia and Baleària will invest 100 million euros in the new passenger terminal.
Former Brittany Ferries ropax CONNEMARA might be going to Bluebridge Cook Strait Ferries. That is at least the rumour.
Levante Ferries reduces their new Thessaloniki – Izmir route from 3 to 2 departures per week! See timetable.
There are plans to restore the Świnoujście-Malmö ferry connection. According to media reports, Finnlines ferries will call Świnoujście seven times a week.
Currently, you can sail from Świnoujście to Ystad (Polferries and Unity Line) and Trelleborg (TT Line).
Louis Dreyfus Armateurs has been carrying out tests with a fuel composed of 100% HVO (Hydrogenated Vegetable Oils – from the recycling of used vegetable oils).
The tests have been going on since several months on roro CIUDAD DE CADIZ, on behalf of customer Airbus Industries.
New York Cruise Lines and (Swedish) Green City Ferries AB announced a collaboration to launch the first high-speed zero-emissions electric ferry to the New York Harbor. With a targeted launch date of Spring 2024 for the introduction of this first-of-its-kind vessel into New York Harbor, the two companies will usher in the new era of cleaner and more efficient marine transportation.
Brittany Ferries has published figures outlining passenger and freight performance for its financial year (November to October).
Freight struggled to recover 2019 levels: -27% on UK-France routes, and -22% on UK-Spain. Brexit border controls have played a role in this trend.
Freight France-Ireland and Ireland-Spain are welcome exceptions to the downward trend.
Brexit opportunities: new services have been launched connecting France directly with Ireland, exploiting what operators call The Brexit by-pass. Volumes have risen more than six-fold to 9,587 units.
Ireland-Spain has also posted positive results. Freight volumes rose 172% to 13,644 units, with an accelerating trend towards unaccompanied or driverless loads. These now comprise 45% of the total carried.
Volumes on Channel routes are a concern. The post-Brexit imposition of passports for French passengers visiting the UK has dramatically hit this side of the BF business. “What is needed now is a concerted push from tourist bodies in France and the UK to boost tourism volumes,” says CEO Christophe Mathieu.
Long routes have seen a significant increase in passenger numbers.
This has helped Brittany Ferries record a positive financial performance for the year.
“While our long routes have surged forwards, the Channel is a real concern for Brittany Ferries and our partners,” said Brittany Ferries CEO Christophe Mathieu.
Brittany Ferries says it is optimistic for the year ahead. Forward reservations are positive, and there are no barriers to passengers crossing borders, as there were in France at the beginning of 2022.
Fleet renewal continues apace
The French version of the press release has an important note about the French flag. Brittany Ferries insist that the entire fleet is now flying the tricolor.
When it launched the first direct route linking Ireland to Spain in 2018, Brittany Ferries had committed that ships operating on this route would fly the French flag.
Since 2 November 2022, Brittany Ferries’ newest vessel, SALAMANCA, replaces CONNEMARA (flag: Cyprus) on the Rosslare/Bilbao and Rosslare/Cherbourg routes.
SALAMANCA flies the French flag and will be operated by French sailors. It will operate two weekly connections between Rosslare and Bilbao and one crossing between Rosslare and Cherbourg.
Recently, BF Chairman Jean-Marc Roué, expressed his deep concern about the social dumping on the Channel. “If Brittany Ferries were to operate under the social conditions of some other operators, its wage bill would fall from 80 million to 30 million euros per year,” he said. (Le Marin, in French)
Color Line has decided to end the operation of ropax COLOR VIKING on the Sandefjord-Strømstad route and roro COLOR CARRIER on the Oslo-Kiel route.
Strong price growth has led to a significant increase in the costs of fuel, shore power and commodity costs, while at the same time important framework conditions have been weakened. This particularly applies to the subsidy scheme for Norwegian seafarers, and in the proposal for the national budget for 2023, a further weakening of the scheme is proposed. In addition, the government proposes to further reduce the scope of the tax-free scheme, this time by halving the tax-free quota on tobacco for residents of Norway.
Both COLOR VIKING and COLOR CARRIER will be put up for sale in the global market.
Color Line says it will seek to minimize the number of redundancies through redeployment to other ships in the fleet and by offering voluntary schemes.
Key figures
Finnlines introduced three new Eco-class hybrid roro vessels, which operate on the route Bilbao–Zeebrugge/Antwerp–Travemünde–Helsinki/Kotka.
In July, Finnlines launched a new freight route between Rosslare, Ireland, and Zeebrugge, Belgium, providing an important link between Ireland and rest of Europe. This line was highly welcomed by the market and, therefore, a smaller ro-ro vessel was quickly replaced by a larger vessel with nearly 4,200 lane metres for cargo.
The EUR 500 million investment programme includes two Superstar ro-pax vessels in addition to the three hybrid ro-ro vessels already in service. Both vessels will have capacity to carry 1,100 passengers, which is about twice the capacity of the existing ro-pax vessels on the route. The cargo capacity will increase from just over 4,000 lane metres in the current vessels to 5,200 lane metres. The new vessels will start operating on the Naantali–Långnäs–Kapellskär route in autumn 2023.
FINNSIRIUS and FINNCANOPUS will significantly enhance the passenger experience
AS Tallink Grupp passenger, cargo unit and passenger vehicles numbers for October 2022 were the following:
FINLAND – SWEDEN
October results reflect operations of Turku-Kapellskär and Helsinki-Stockholm routes. The cruise ferry GALAXY stopped operating on the Turku-Stockholm route in September 2022 due to a charter contract.
ESTONIA – FINLAND
October results reflect operations of shuttle services.
ESTONIA – SWEDEN
October results reflect operations of Tallinn-Stockholm and Paldiski-Kapellskär routes. The cargo ship SAILOR underwent maintenance works until October 28, 2022.