Ferry Companies Sound Alarm, Closing in 3 Months

High fuel and maintenance costs, together with a sharp decline in the number of passengers has brought the Greek ferry companies to their knees (those that manage the connections to and from the islands). The companies have announced that they may have to keep their ferries in port as early as September.
Their revenues have fallen by an average of 15% compared with the year before, while the outlook for this year is another 10% decline, much too optimistic according to many.
The warning was issued again, the first time in April when nobody seemed to be listening, by Greek newspaper Kathimerini.
Leaders in the sector have pointed out that fuel prices have risen by 56.8% for normal ferries and by 63% for high-speed ships over the past two years. The price of a ton of diesel used as fuel by traditional boats is currently at 594 euros, against 480 last year and 380 two years ago.  High-speed ships pay a much higher price: 783 euros per ton, against 675 in 2011 and 480 in 2010.

”Due to the sharp increase in fuel prices and their cost, representing 55-60% of a ship’s daily expenses, the future of ferry operators is not at all bright,” said the head of the association of ferry companies (SEEN), who preferred to remain anonymous.  ”I am afraid,” this source added, ”that without the help of the government, who could change regulations allowing us to cut other costs like labor, very few ferries will still be in service in the Aegean Sea, not enough to cover the most elementary marine transport requirements of the country.”
The running costs of a ferry on a connection to the Cyclades will rise, according to the source, by at least two million euros this year because of rising fuel prices. That means 16.7% more vehicles and 100,000 more passengers must be transported to compensate for this increase. An operator of a ferry on the Piraeus-Crete line would need 110,000 more passengers and a 37.7% increase in the number of transported vehicles to compensate for the 2.6 million euros paid extra for fuel.
”One way of leveling the losses caused by the expensive fuel is to increase tariffs. But each time we have done that, like on the connections to Myconos, Samos and Icaria, we saw our revenues drop,” the source admitted. Now companies are looking for other ways to reduce costs, such as reducing the speed of traditional ferries (lowering fuel consumption) or the number of journeys per week.  Another idea is to unite several routes.  ”To make a journey profitable, the ship must reach at least 70% of its capacity.  But this happens only in summer and during some holiday periods,” the SEEN expert concluded.
(source: ANSA)