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Latest ferry news for June 2009
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Irish Ferries ships your kids for free
Date: 19 Jun 2009 Source: Directferries.co.ukKids travel free on all Irish Ferries crossings between 4 July and 31 August when booked by 30 June and 14 days before sailing.
And with a bargain offer of just £59 each-way for a car and driver and £20 for additional adults for midweek travel (Monday to Thursday), a family of four can cross the Irish Sea with their car – in peak season - for as little as £99.
These prices apply on the Pembroke/Rosslare cruise ferry crossing; add £10 for Friday and Sunday travel or £20 on Saturdays. On the Holyhead/Dublin cruise ferry the lead-in is £84 for car and driver or £99 for the fast ferry.
All prices represent savings of up to 30 per cent.
For more information and bookings, please visit our Irish Ferries page.
Greek ferry owners vent anger over ticket levies
Date: 12 Jun 2009 Source: Lloyds ListGreece's ferry owners are poised to take legal action against the Greek government in a further bid to force it to throw off shackles that the industry says are threatening to squeeze it out of existence.
The Association of Greek Coastal Shipping Companies has decided to instruct legal counsel “in order to speed up” the full implementation by Greece of European Union Council regulation 3577/92 regarding freedom to provide maritime transport services.
“This has been our core issue for the coastal shipping sector and will provide an overall improvement in the services rendered, and create a highly competitive sector,” said association president Apostolos Ventouris. He described a number of the government’s levies and outdated laws applied to ferry services as “appalling”.
According to the association, the state receives annual income of up to $175m solely from indirect mandatory taxes, representing 33%-43% of fares.
“These charges on all of the tickets halt the ability of all companies to implement competitive practices, further decreasing the total traffic transported in Greece, especially during the current period of financial unrest,” Mr Ventouris said.
The levies included VAT of 9% on passenger fares and 19% on vehicles, port taxes of 5%, a tax linked to public service route subsidies and a mandatory 6.5% passenger and vehicle insurance charge paid to the national seafarers’ pension fund.
The latter represented double charging, Mr Ventouris claimed, as companies were obliged to have P&I coverage. This was was “completely unacceptable and not what it was originally introduced for”.
Operators remained burdened with port charges for luggage carriers and tenders shuttling passengers between vessel and shore, even though both services had not existed since the 1970s, he said.
Indirect costs the industry is complaining about include rigid manning criteria that do not accord with vessels.
“My own company has a vessel that was routed in France with a [safe manning] crew of 17, whereas in Greece the union of seafarers demanded the vessel have a total of 34 crew members,” said Mr Ventouris, who heads NEL Lines.
“The particular vessel is a high-speed craft that does not have a galley. It is unbelievable, but our company was obliged to hire cooks. All the ships are overstaffed by 80%-100%, which is unheard of anywhere else in the world,” he said.
Another cause of the industry’s ire is “outdated” legislation requiring continual service for seven and a half months for fast ferries and 10 months for conventional ferries, with minimum 10-month employment spells for crew.
“No one has even thought about the effect on the companies, the environment or even the seafarers.
“Even the hotels in the destinations the ships travel to are closed,” Mr Ventouris said. “Can you imagine the waste of energy this creates, not to mention the pollution?”
Mr Ventouris said it was imperative to apply European Union rules: “It will immediately and dramatically lower the cost of all ferry tickets for all passengers, which in turn should increase traffic. Thus, coastal shipping companies will be able to increase revenue and profits due to the economies of scale achieved,” he said.
DFDS Seaways deal could lead to more Newcastle ferry services
Date: 8 Jun 2009 Source: Port of TyneDFDS Seaways and the Port of Tyne have announced a new agreement which could lead to more ferry operators launching services from Newcastle.
It was confirmed that DFDS Seaways had agreed to transfer responsibility for quayside operations, as well as nine staff, to the Port of Tyne.
The deal allows the port to dedicate more resources to improving passenger experience and operations at Newcastle ferry port, while DFDS Seaways can concentrate on its Newcastle to Amsterdam ferry route and its onboard service.
Andrew Moffatt, chief executive of the Port of Tyne, said: "We provide a valuable service for the region with an estimated contribution of around £50 million to the economy in the form of visitor spending.
"We have invested heavily in the development of the Port of Tyne international passenger terminal and the transfer of quayside operations in May has put us in a much stronger position to attract new business."
In addition to its Amsterdam ferry service, DFDS Seaways offers a travel option for people planning to visit Scandinavia with its ferries from Harwich to Esbjerg in Denmark.
To book tickets from Newcastle, please visit our DFDS Seaways page.
LD Lines adds new fast cross channel ferry
Date: 6 Jun 2009 Source: Directferries UKLD Lines has announced the launch of a new fast ferry service linking Dover and Boulogne, effective Saturday, 6 June.
The ferry operator’s new high-speed catamaran, the Norman Arrow, will operate four daily return sailings, at a crossing time of one hour.
Fares on the catamaran service start from £27.50, each way, based on a five-day return, for a car with up to four passengers. Foot passenger fares start from £9 each way, with a same-day return costing £18.
It is planned that the frequency of crossings on Norman Arrow wil be increased to six per day.
The new high-speed ferry can carry as many as 1,200 passengers and either 417 cars or a combination of 30 freight vehicles and 195 cars. It operates at speeds of up to 40 knots.
LD Lines claims that Norman Arrow is the largest fast ferry ever to operate cross channel services. It is the largest diesel-powered catamaran in the world and the first-ever to carry freight at high speeds between England and France, across the Dover Straits.
For more information, or to make a booking, please visit our LD Lines page.
Fantastic voyage GNV eyes Maghreb routes
Date: 3 Jun 2009 Source: Lloyds ListGenoa based ferry operator Grandi Navi Veloci yesterday signed a contract to take over the Quai Orsetti in the port of Sète as a base for a new range of services between France and the Maghreb, writes John McLaughlin .
GNV managing director Ariodante Valeri said the company was studying connections to Morocco and Algeria in particular, with a view to launching in October.
The deal with Sète marks the end of a long-running search by GNV for a French Mediterranean home for its burgeoning North African business, which it views as a key driver of future growth.
GNV had appeared destined to settle in Marseilles until soaring bunker prices put talks on hold last year. As fuel prices fell and its interest in the project resurfaced, however, Sète emerged as the favourite to be GNV’s French hub.
Mr Valeri cited its good motorway connections, its location between Marseilles and Barcelona, and the Quai Orsetti’s two berths, which can handle the 200 m long vessels it will deploy on the new routes.
He added that GNV’s arrival in Sète would also provide the region with the competition it seeks on the North African routes, which are currently served out of Sète by Comanav Comarit.
The Italian operator has launched a new company, GNV France, with two French partners specialising in cargo and passenger traffic, to handle the operation.
Mr Valeri envisaged further investment in Sète, perhaps via a stake in a future operating company in the port.
He said GNV France would focus on passenger traffic more than cargo as it seeks to build the business, and that vessels such as the 39,800 dwt Excelsior or the 35,222 dwt Fantastic , pictured, would be candidates to operate on the new routes.
Pembrokeshire to Spain ferry plan floated
Date: 1 Jun 2009 Source: Westerntelegraph.co.ukA ferry service which could take cargo and passengers directly from Pembrokeshire to the north coast of Spain is now under discussion and could be up and running as early as next year.
The possible link between Pembroke Dock and the city of Ferrol, in north western Spain, is still in its early stages, but could give huge advantages to haulage companies if it goes ahead.
Unfortunately for potential day trippers, the ferry service being discussed by the Milford Haven Port Authority (MHPA) and port bosses at Ferrol would only have room for about 10 to 12 passengers.
The main focus would be on transporting freight, unaccompanied by drivers, which would be dropped off at the ferry in Pembroke Dock and picked up at the other side.
“The benefit would be that you don’t have a lorry driving right across England, France and Spain.
“Companies can save on the environmental impact and on the roads and costs of drivers,” said MHPA commercial director Joe Besch.
Research has already shown that there are between 90 to 100,000 potential truck loads which could use the service, with around 16,000 units needed to make the route viable.
Mr Besch said: “The more people we can get the better, because you are increasing the utilisation of the ferry terminal at Pembroke Dock and we also have a twice daily service with Ireland and this would allow for Irish cargo to come from Ireland and send cargo directly over to Spain.
“We have spoken to ship owners and ferry companies, the next stage is to do more market research and find out who the companies are who could use the service.”
GNV seeks to take over Tirrenia’s Sardinia link
Date: 1 Jun 2009 Source: Lloyds ListGenoa based Grandi Navi Veloci has put itself forward as a potential partner for the region of Sardinia to run ferry services
to the island once state carrier Tirrenia is privatised.
Speaking after meeting regional transport director Liliana Lorettu in Sassari, GNV managing director Ariodante Valeri said he “proposed GNV as a future manager of the Tirrenia lines serving Sardinia as part of any public-private joint venture that might succeed Tirrenia”.
The Italian government is considering its options as it looks to privatise Tirrenia before the end of the year, and GNV’s public declaration of intent is likely to prompt further jockeying for position among the private operators eager to profit from the state carrier’s demise.
The move also comes as GNV is seeking to reverse an order from the port authority of northern Sardinia to move from its long-time home in the industrial port of Porto Torres, where it expects to handle 600,000 passengers this year, to a refurbished commercial port.
Until recently, Rome had appeared to favour selling off Tirrenia en bloc to a single buyer after competitive bidding.
Recently, however, it has returned to the possibility of farming out Tirrenia’s regional companies, including Saremar, which serves Sardinia, to the regional
governments.
While the likes of Sardinia and Campania had long been open to taking over local services, others such as Tuscany were opposed. Opposition has waned, however, precisely as budget cuts in Rome have threatened to bring cuts in Tirrenia’s services to the islands.
For GNV, the meeting in Sassari was doubly useful as it seeks to bolster its position in the large and growing Sardinia market.
The company is furious at being forced to transfer from its long-time home in the industrial port in Porto Torres to the new commercial port near the heart of the city.
Mr Valeri says the port authority of northern Sardinia ordered the transfer unilaterally and without warning, and has refused to discuss the issue since.
In response, GNV has filed papers with a regional administrative court requesting the reversal of the port authority order and the restoration of its operating concession at the industrial port.
Corsica Sardinia Ferries has just won a somewhat similar case against the port authority before the same court, involving its right to load and unload its own ships.
Mr Valeri, who cites rudimentary facilities for passengers at the new terminal as well as its dangerous exposure to harsh weather conditions in the winter months, says Ms Lorettu pledged to investigate, adding that he hoped for a favourable
resolution.
Separately, on Wednesday Mr Valeri met Porto Torres transport director Giacomo Rum, and put GNV forward as a possible partner in a consortium to operate the local cruise and ferry facilities.
Though there may be sound financial reasons for an involvement, GNV’s offer is also likely to reinforce the impression locally of the company’s potential financial contribution to the area.
© Direct Ferries Ltd
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