Twelve Superfast Ferry Launched
Superfast XII slid gracefully down the slipway of the yard into the waters of the Baltic Sea last month. Attica Enterprises, the holding company for Superfast Ferries, said its newest super-fast vessel is due for delivery from the Flender Werft shipyards in Lubeck, Germany, in the second quarter of 2002.
The XII is the second of a pair of two ultramodern car-passenger ferries currently under construction at yards. Its sister ship, Superfast XI, which was launched in August 2001, is due for delivery in the course of the first quarter of 2002.
Superfast XI and Superfast XII each have a capacity of 1,550 passengers and garage decks for 130 large trucks and at the same time 100 private vehicles. They have four 12-cylinder Wartsila engines that produce a total output of 48,000 kw and a speed in excess of 30 knots. Both are equipped with the latest navigation and communication technology.
The two new cruise-class ferries, says owner Attica Enterprises, will offer 5-star comfort to their passengers along with all the cruise-type amenities found on all up-market cruise vessels.
Before the delivery of the newest vessels, Superfast IX and Superfast X will be delivered by to the Attica Group this month and next to join Superfast VII and Superfast VIII in the four-ship daily service in the Baltic Sea between Germany and Finland and Germany and Sweden.
The Baltic service was inaugurated on May 17th, 2001 with the deployment of Superfast VII joined by Superfast VIII on 16th July, 2001 in the Germany-Finland service.
Superfast Ferries as of May 2002 will inaugurate a new two-ship direct ferry service between Rosyth in Scotland and Zeebrugge in Belgium. With the new Superfast service, Scotland will be directly connected to mainland Europe with daily overnight crossings between Rosyth and Zeebrugge employing a journey time of only about 17 hours.
Meanwhile, the company and its subsidiaries were able to show a marked increase in revenue during last year thanks to increased market for both the Superfast Ferries’ vessels and the Blue Star Ferries’ vessels in the Adriatic Sea, and impressive debut of Superfast Ferries in the Baltic Sea.
Consolidated results for the 9-month period to September 30, 2001, show sales of 196.3 million euros (66.9 billion drachmas), an increase by 26.8% against the same period of last year. Net profit after interest, depreciation and taxes stood at 10.6 million euros (3.6 billion drachmas), of which 933.235 euros (318 million drachmas) comes from Attica’s 40%-plus share in Strintzis Lines.
Both companies of the Group showed a considerable increase in their carryings between January and September 2001 in the Adriatic Sea.
The Blue Star Ferries’ (Strintzis Lines) ships operating in the Adriatic carried 358,560 passengers (an increase of 5.8% over the same period in 2000), 52,659 trucks (a decrease of 0.9%) and 79,922 private cars (an increase of 22.2%) between January and September 2001. In the domestic market, the Blue Star fleet carried 1.8 million passengers (an increase of 14%), 52,191 trucks (a decrease of 13%) and 236,388 private cars (an increase of 2.6%). Above data do not include traffic between Corfu and the Italian ports in the Adriatic.
The Blue Star Ferries’ fleet, which is currently being restructured with the Blue Star Ithaki being assigned new routes that center on the connection Rafina-Mykonos. The Blue Star Paros and the Blue Star Naxos, both currently under final stage of construction in Korea, will be operating schedules to and from the corresponding Cycladic islands.