Wasaline, which operates between Finland and Sweden, can look back on a successful year. Both the ferry company’s turnover and passenger numbers developed positively.
Passenger numbers rose by 2.6% year-on-year to a total of 259,769 passengers, despite the ship being in dry dock for maintenance work in the last week of December. Turnover increased by 2.7% to €28.8 million. The company recorded a slight decline due to an economic downturn. According to a statement from Wasaline, major construction projects in the region were postponed, paper imports and exports declined and the company Northvolt – a manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries – filed for bankruptcy. Nevertheless, the freight company was able to increase its market share, according to the shipping company.
The company’s efforts towards climate neutrality also developed positively. In August, Wasaline switched its ship operations to biogas, which mainly contributed to an 85.3% reduction in operating emissions.
“Despite the economic downturn, we are seeing continued growth in our passenger numbers,” said Peter Ståhlberg, CEO of Wasaline. “We have new segments from Central Europe who are interested in winter cruises when there is ice in the Kvarken area. These are mainly tourist groups from Germany, but this year we are also seeing bookings from other European countries. Most of our passengers are still Finns and Swedes.”
The Managing Director sees “great potential” for intermodal transport in the coming months. Interest from freight customers has increased, primarily because of the biogas operation and Wasaline’s concept for minimizing the carbon footprint, which is already delivering results. The shipping company operates a daily ferry service between Vaasa in Finland and Umeå in Sweden with the RoPax ferry “Aurora Botnia”, which was delivered in 2021. This is the northernmost year-round service in the world.
The 150-metre-long “Aurora Botnia” spent the turn of the year at the Turku Repair Yard in Naantali. There, maintenance work was carried out on the bow thrusters and azipods and inspections were carried out by the classification society DNV. “All five-year inspections were approved without any objections,” Wasaline announced. The passenger areas have also been modernized and the car deck has been repainted. New batteries have also been installed on board. The “Aurora Botnia” has a capacity of 12.6 MWh, the world’s largest battery capacity on a RoPax ship.
