PEOPLE

By | 2025 Newsletter week 19 | No Comments

Management Changes at Gotlandsbolaget and Viking Line

Gotlandsbolaget

  • Björn Nilsson, current vice chairman of the board, will become the new CEO (7 July 2025)
  • Håkan Johansson, current CEO, will become vice CEO and new CEO of Destination Gotland (with immediate effect)
  • Marcus Risberg, CEO Destination Gotland, is leaving and becoming CEO of Viking Line
  • Board member Lars Wedenborn will become the new chairman of the board. (10 June)
  • Ann-Marie Åström will become vice chairman of the board. (10 June)

Viking Line

  • Viking Line Plc’s Board of Directors has appointed Marcus Risberg as the new CEO. (no later than 1 January 2026).
  • He succeeds Jan Hanses, who is retiring after 11 years as CEO and 38 years in the company’s service.

Source 1: https://corporate.gotlandsbolaget.se/sv/bjorn-nilsson-ny-vd-for-gotlandsbolaget/

Source 2: https://www.vikingline.com/sv/investerare/2A1B630434453DB1

Viking Line Q1 Characterized by Ship Dockings and a Challenging Market Environment

By | 2025 Newsletter week 17 | No Comments

Financial Highlights (Q1 2025 vs Q1 2024)

  • Sales: €87.3M (↓ 6.3% from €93.2M)
  • Operating income: €-18.0M (vs €-10.4M)
  • Income before taxes: €-22.0M (vs €-14.2M)
  • Net income: €-22.1M (vs €-14.3M)
  • Investments: €9.0M (mainly in GABRIELLA and VIKING XPRS)
  • Cash flow from operations: €-10.0M (vs €+1.3M)

Market & Operations

  • Passenger volumes: 767,353 (↓ from 871,828)
  • Cargo units: 36,352 (↑ from 32,993)
  • Passenger market share: 31.2% (↓ from 34.6%)
  • Cargo market share: 20.5% (↑ from 17.4%)
  • Passenger cars market share: 26.0% (↓ from 29.9%)

Fleet Activity

  • GABRIELLA docked (technical work)
  • VIKING XPRS docked (refurbishment and shop rebuild)
  • BIRKA GOTLAND had a planned traffic break
  • VIKING CINDERELLA temporarily operated on Helsinki–Tallinn route during XPRS docking

CEO Insights – Jan Hanses

  • Results aligned with expectations but weaker than Q1 2024
  • Two dockings negatively affected performance
  • Passenger demand still soft, but onboard consumption slightly stronger
  • Increased costs due to:
    • Finnish fairway fees (reversal of previous discount)
    • Emissions Trading System (ETS) now at 70% implementation
    • General cost pressure from maintenance, emissions, and fairway fees
    • Positive outlook expected toward the end of Q2

Financial & Investment Notes

  • Debt fully repaid for VIKING GRACE
  • Cash reserves down to €26.0M (vs €65.7M in Q1 2024)
  • Unutilised credit lines: €22.1M
  • Debt/equity ratio: 52.5% (vs 50.1%)

Key Risk Factors

  • Continued economic uncertainty in core traffic area
  • Geopolitical tensions affecting energy and transport markets
  • Unclear long-term trade prospects
  • Ongoing pandemic-era support repayments: €1.1M provision booked

Outlook

  • 2025 result before taxes expected to be in line with 2024
  • Uncertainty remains high due to external factors (economy, fuel prices, demand)

Viking Line, Ports of Turku and Stockholm Celebrate One Year of Cooperation to Establish a Green Shipping Corridor

By | 2025 Newsletter week 06 | No Comments

Viking Line, Port of Turku and Ports of Stockholm have been working together for a year on a project which aims to establish a green, fossil-free shipping corridor between Stockholm and Turku. The parties have now laid a solid foundation for the project and developed a clear plan for a common way forward.

Read more on Vikingline.com

2024: Record Volumes of Cargo for Viking Line

By | 2025 Newsletter week 03 | No Comments

Viking Line: five vessels served a total of 4.6 million passengers in 2024 and transported a record volume of cargo.

  • Viking Line served a total of 4,646,676 passengers with its five vessels in 2024.
  • The cruise vessel BIRKA GOTLAND, which is jointly owned with Gotlandsbolaget, also served 438,743 passengers.
  • The biggest increase – almost 10% – was noted on the Helsinki–Tallinn route, which had 1,819,971 passengers.
  • Capacity on the Helsinki–Stockholm route more than doubled when VIKING CINDERELLA launched service on the route alongside GABRIELLA in March. A total of 722,051 people travelled on the route, and Viking Line’s market share was boosted to 43%.
  • On the Turku–Stockholm route, Viking Line’s market share was 70%, with VIKING GLORY and VIKING GRACE serving a total of 1,983,081 passengers.
  • Viking Line transported a record volume of cargo last year, a total of 134,219 units.

Guernsey Choses Brittany Ferries

By | 2024 Newsletter week 44 | No Comments

Guernsey has selected Brittany Ferries / Condor Ferries as its preferred operator for vital sea routes over the next 15 years, ensuring continued connectivity. Meanwhile, Jersey’s government has not yet finalised its choice for a company to manage its own service routes.

DFDS was involved in the tender process, as well as Irish Ferries. The first sent a few ships to test the berths, the latter withdrew.

Viking Line’s Circular Economy Success: Transforming Waste into Sustainable Resources

By | 2024 Newsletter week 44 | No Comments

Viking Line recycles nearly all waste from its vessels, with coffee grounds and cooking oil collected for reuse. Coffee grounds, collected from five vessels, are repurposed for garden soil, reducing the need for peat by 30%. Cooking oil is converted into hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO), a diesel alternative. In 2023, Viking Line recycled 1,475 tonnes of food waste, generating enough biogas to power 800 apartments annually. Ongoing efforts include a food waste project to analyse and reduce surplus, highlighting Viking Line’s commitment to sustainability.

Source: Viking Line

Viking Line had a total of nearly 1.8 million passengers during the summer

By | 2024 Newsletter week 36 | No Comments

Nearly 1.8 million passengers travelled on Viking Line’s vessels during the period June–August 2024. The greatest increase in demand was on the Tallinn route, which also had more departures than in previous summer seasons. This summer, passengers were drawn by the variety of attractions in Estonia and the other Baltic countries, to Åland as depicted in the historical film Stormskärs Maja, and by a refurbished Viking Cinderella. 

 In short: 

  • Viking Line served nearly 1.8 million passengers during June–August 2024. 
  • The Tallinn route saw the greatest increase in demand, with over 732,000 passengers and a rise of more than 11%. 
  • The Helsinki–Stockholm route carried 274,000 passengers, with Viking Line’s market share rising to 44%. 
  • A cheap Swedish krona increased Stockholm’s appeal as a destination. 
  • Special cruises to Visby, Gotland were highly popular and sold out quickly. 
  • The Turku–Mariehamn–Stockholm route served 747,000 passengers, maintaining Viking Line’s market share at nearly 70%. 
  • International tourist numbers rose significantly, with notable increases in Chinese, German, Polish, South Korean, and American passengers. 
  • Climate tourism, driven by people seeking cooler destinations, is on the rise. 
  • The abrupt end of the summer season is a challenge for the tourism industry due to earlier school start dates in Finland. 

 Read the full story on Vikingline.com 

Viking Line posts historically strong earnings

By | 2024 Newsletter week 07 | No Comments

January–December 2023 (2022)

  • Sales amounted to EUR 491.4 million (EUR 494.7 million).
  • Other operating revenue was EUR 9.1 million (EUR 24.1 million).
  • Operating income totalled EUR 55.0 million (EUR 38.3 million).
  • Net financial items were EUR -9.6 million (EUR -10.3 million).
  • Income before taxes totalled EUR 45.4 million (EUR 28.0 million).
  • Income after taxes totalled EUR 36.3 million (EUR 22.7 million).
  • The Board of Directors proposes a dividend of 1 euro per share, which corresponds to 48% of earnings.

Outlook for the financial year 2024

There continues to be significant uncertainty due to the geopolitical situation and the impact this has on energy prices, inflation, interest rates and currencies as well as the effects these uncertainty factors may have on people’s propensity to travel, demand, consumption patterns and costs.

Provided energy prices remain at current levels and there is a sustained propensity to travel, the Board expects income before taxes in 2024 to be on a par with the figure for 2023 if the EUR 8.6 million capital gain from the sale of ROSELLA in 2023 is not included.

Q4, 2023

  • Sales amounted to EUR 112.2 million (EUR 124.5 million).
  • Other operating revenue was EUR 0.3 million (EUR 15.2 million).
  • Operating income totalled EUR 2.7 million (EUR 19.4 million).
  • Net financial items were EUR -0.6 million (EUR -2.9 million).
  • Income before taxes amounted to EUR 2.0 million (EUR 16.5 million including the EUR 15.0 million capital gain from AMORELLA).
  • Income after taxes totalled EUR 1.7 million (EUR 13.2 million).

Full details here.

Good passenger numbers for Viking Line in 2023

By | 2024 Newsletter week 02 | No Comments

A total of 5 million passengers sailed on the Viking Line vessels in 2023.

During the period June-August, there were nearly 1.8 million passengers, and many departures during the summer holiday season were sold out well in advance.

Less passengers than previous year 4,897,494 (4,945,564) because of fewer vessels.

AMORELLA ended its service for Viking Line in October 2022 while ROSELLA made its last voyage for the company in January 2023.

VIKING GRACE and VIKING GLORY had the biggest passenger increase, on the Turku–Åland–Stockholm route, with 2,123,647 (1,955,988) passengers. Viking Line’s market share here was 72 %. Viking Glory, which launched service in 2022, is still a novelty and a very popular vessel.

VIKING GABRIELLA served the Helsinki–Åland–Stockholm route on its own during the year and had 496,844 (515,445) passengers.

VIKING XPRS had 1,655,548 (1,403,048) passengers in its service between Helsinki and Tallinn.

The number of passengers who sailed on special cruises and other routes was 71,116.

The number of cargo units was up 125,269 (117,777), and the number of passenger cars was down 563,081 (630,651). (Remark, with two ships that left the fleet)

Outlook:

“In 2023, Viking XPRS was reflagged under a Finnish flag, and during the autumn we decided to do the same with Viking Cinderella, which will be reassigned to the Helsinki–Stockholm route in spring 2024. The new financial year 2024 will be both exciting and demanding. We are following economic developments very closely and adapting our operations to meet the challenges we face. Last autumn, we formed a joint venture with the shipping company Gotlandsbolaget with the task of developing and providing cruises with M/S Birka Gotland. We see great potential for this joint venture and have a generally optimistic outlook for Baltic Sea travel,” says Jan Hanses, CEO of Viking Line.

Source: Viking Line

Viking Line + Gotlandsbolaget = BIRKA GOTLAND

By | 2023 Newsletter week 49 | No Comments

In August, Viking Line and Gotlandsbolaget presented a new joint investment in cruise traffic between Stockholm, Mariehamn and Visby. Now it is clear that the Baltic Sea’s new cruise vessel will be called BIRKA GOTLAND.

Under the leadership of CEO Susanne Kaarnimo-Knight, BIRKA GOTLAND will offer cruises from the end of March 2024.

Around Easter 2024, the first cruise will depart from Stockholm to Mariehamn. During spring and summer, the ship will also go via Visby on selected departures.

After that, the destinations are gradually expanded during the summer months with several popular destinations such as Härnösand, Ystad, Bornholm and Riga.