Interview With Jan Hanses, President And CEO Of Viking Line
Viking Line, the Finnish cruise ferry company that operates services from Finland to Sweden and Estonia celebrates its 60th anniversary this May, and is looking forward to taking delivery of its next newbuilt ship in two years’ time. The company’s busy CEO Jan Hanses took a moment to sit down for a question and answer session in the company’s Helsinki office with Ferry Shipping News’ Finland-based freelance correspondent Kalle Id.
The popularity of route travel between Helsinki and Tallinn is on the rise. Viking Line is altering the timetables of VIKING XPRS to better correspond to the growing demand.
Additional departures will be added to the Friday and Sunday timetables as from 5 April.
Viking XPRS will make three trips per day on the Helsinki – Tallinn route on Fridays and Sundays, the most popular days.
The demand for additional departures is particularly high from Finland to Estonia, where (tourism) passengers are increasingly looking to travel to Tallinn and Estonia.
The number of passengers traveling with Viking Line in 2018 was 6,411,537, a bit lower than previous year (6,881,149). In 2017 Viking Line chartered high-speed ferry VIKING FSTR, creating more capacity. In 2018 Viking Line had 38% fewer departures on the route.
The number of freight units was 128,549 (127,668) and the number of passenger cars 704,799 (762,253).
Several Baltic ferry companies are focusing on minimizing food waste at the buffet restaurants, a typical place where people tend to take too much.
Tallink Silja is looking at the entire food chain from the galley to the passengers. Smaller plates help a lot. However, different passenger profiles create different consumption patterns (example: 200 ice-hockey players versus 200 retired people).
Viking Line has set up signs at its buffet, where they invite people not to take more food than they can eat.
Putting smaller portions in the buffet also helped a lot. It helps the passengers to take the right sizes of portions.
Finnlines has been focusing on getting better at assessing the amount of needed food.
On the Helsinki-Travemünde route the company provides food coupons that allow the combination of a light breakfast and then a hearty lunch.
Viking Line Group Reports First Nine Months
Period January 1–September 30, 2018
-3.6% Consolidated sales EUR 378.1 million
+22.2% Operating income EUR 7.7 million
+21.8 Consolidated income before taxes EUR 5.6 million
+26.3 Income after taxes EUR 4.8 million
-4.1% Passenger-related revenue EUR 343.0 million
+2.5% Cargo revenue EUR 33.4 million.
-7.5% passengers 4,967,745 (in 2017 Viking Line operated fast ferry Viking FSTR, not in 2018)
+0.5% cargo 95,081
Q3
-2.7% Consolidated sales EUR 152.3 million
+0.0% Operating income amounted to EUR 21.3 million
Some highlights of Viking Line’s half-year results for the period January 1 – June 30, 2018:
Thanks to lower operating expenses, consolidated income for the first six months of 2018 improved despite lower sales.
The weak Swedish krona had a negative impact on consolidated income.
Viking Line introduced a new organization model, with as aim to bring faster decision-making and clearer ownership of results. Strengthening the commercial focus at an organizational level is another goal.
Viking Line has transported 3.1m passengers, with a turnover of EUR 239.3m. Competitor Tallink welcomed 4.5m guests, and realized a turnover of EUR 451.4m.
At the request of Trasmediterránea some modifications are being done on ferry VILLA DEL TEROR, delaying the delivery with a couple of weeks.
The 139m ship originally ordered by Viking Line was transferred on 22 June from the Vulcan shipyard to the dry dock of Metalships & Docks for its painting.
Meanwhile, the future of the shipyard is being questioned.
In its Q1 Interim Report, Tallink Grupp AS obviously experiences the same though competition as Viking Line, especially on the routes between Finland and Sweden. The competition has an influence on the ticket price.
The total number of passengers has declined 0,5%, only due to the decrease on Finland – Sweden (-9.9%). This route is also having lower figures for cargo (-15.6%) and cars (-16.3%). All other routes are seeing increases.
In its Q1 Business Review Viking Line describes the competition as tough. This will imply continued pressure on prices and volumes.
The company also expects higher bunker prices, and sees the exchange rate trend for the Swedish krona as a risk factor.
Deltamarin wrote an article about Viking Line and their efforts to operate in a more environmental-friendly way. Main focus is on the use of wind energy as an additional source of thrust on board their vessels.
