A ferry review, including: refugees can count on the support of the ferry industry

In a weekly review in a telegraphic summary, the portal "PromySKAT" informs about the most important events of the past days; about the issues that the ferry industry lives or soon will live. This week, among others, about the support of Ukrainian ferry carriers.

Norwegian shipowner with new ferry

Havila Kystruten received the second of modern ferrythe ones built in Turkish Tersan plants. It is a Havila Castor ship, which, like the previously delivered sister Havila Capella, is 124 metres long and 22 metres wide. It has 640 passengers on board who can find comfortable accommodation in 179 cabins. The ship will run on the Bergen-Kirkenes route. His first voyage This line is scheduled for May 10. The value of a ship that meets the stringent emission standards is about 1.2 billion Norwegian kronor (about PLN 576 million). Unlike the first ship, the Russian leasing company GTLK was excluded from the financing process of the new acquisition. There are currently two new ferries under construction for the Norwegian carrier Havila Polaris and Havila Pollux.

New ferry DFDS prepares for commercial voyageed

The DFDS is constantly upgrading its fleet, and one of the company's newest acquisitions is Luna Seaways – one of the six modern ro-paxes on which work began in 2015. Before Luna Seaways enters its permanent route (the ship will run on the Klaipeda-Karlshamn line, which already serves the twin Aura Seaways), you can admire it during trials voyages. One of them was held in Copenhagen, where the new headquarters of DFDS company are located. Luna Seaways has a 4500 m long cargo belt. It can also take 600 passengers aboard. "I truly believe that with these two new ferries we have set completely new standards for drivers and passengers. But especially for truck drivers who usually stay long on the road and on board may experience something special" said Anders Refsgaard of the DFDS.

Bornholmslinjen enjoys records again

Looking at the last The results achieved by Molslinjen can be clearly stated that in the area of ferry transport everything is going in the right direction. The company has just praised the Easter result. During the hot holidays her ferries floating under the Bornholmslinjen brand carried 84,978 passengers (to Bornholm Island and back). This means an increase of 3,700 passengers compared to the previous record. It is worth reminding that previously this result was bolted in 2019, that is, before the outbreak of the pandemic. Before the coronavirus crisis occurred, beating passenger transport records on Bornholm was part of the Christmas tradition. So it seems that everything is slowly returning to normal. Company officials have already announced that they are preparing for the perfect summer.

Ystad port rebuilds traffic

The message that the movement in the industry is getting better can also be data coming from ports. The official statistics for the past year were praised by Port of Ystad, where significant progress was achieved over the entire 2021 year. Thus, the volume of handling increased to 3.38 million tonnes (an increase of 17.5%), the number of heavy goods vehicles that went through the port increased to 263 918 (an increase of 16.4%), and by 17.6% – to 2.37 million – the number of passengers increased. The number of folds increased by 11.4 percent. It is worth mentioning that Polish shipowners have a key influence on the results of this popular port in Sweden. Cruises to Ystad are supported by, among others, PZB (Polferries) and PZM (United Line).

How Shipowners Help Refugees

The Russian-based crisis in Ukraine has led to numerous actors involved in humanitarian aid, including those representing the ferry industry. People fleeing the war drama can count on the support of shipowners. We recently informed about the free transport offered by Stena Line to refugees. Polferries also prepared a similar proposal. As the Polish carrier explained, so far Ukrainians have used 10,000 tickets for crossings between Poland and Sweden. The shipowner has been running an aid operation for nearly 2 months, also offering a free transport of humanitarian aid collected by the Swedish side. Apart from food and clothing, they were also medical vehicles, and recently also fire trucks. They were picked up by the State Fire Department, which in turn handed them over to Ukrainian services.

Belarusian and Russian vehicles were not allowed in Poland

According to the sanctions in force within the Community, Belarusian and Russian carriers cannot operate freely in countries belonging to the European Union. We recently reported that trucks of companies belonging to restricted countries could not enter Latvia. But these sanctions also work at Polish borders. According to the information presented by the National Tax Administration, 236 trucks belonging to Russian or Belarusian carriers were not allowed in the territory of Poland only between 9 and 11 April. Lithuania also presented its data, which did not allow 250 trucks (between 11 and 15 April). Latvia last weekend (from Saturday to Sunday morning) did not let 152 trucks in. On Sunday, a transitional period ended, allowing the drivers working for Russian and Belarusian carriers to complete their already completed orders within the EU.

Source: PromySKAT