By
Rebecca Gibson |
Ferry operator Fjord Line has carried more than 100,000 guests on its two passenger ferries since January 2014.
Last July, Fjord Line launched Stavangerfjord, the first of two environmentally friendly passenger ferries built by Bergen Group at Norway’s Fosen shipyard. During her first few months in service, Stavangerfjord operated a regular service on the route between the Norwegian ports of Bergen and Stavanger and the Danish port of Hirtshals, as well as the route between Hirtshals and Langesund. This March, Bergensfjord, the second of the two ferries joined Stavangerfjord on the two routes.
According to the line, passenger numbers on the Bergen-Stavanger-Hirtshals route from Norway to Denmark were 14% higher than expected, while numbers on the Langesund-Hirtshals route were 13% more than estimated at the end of April.
“Reservations for the rest of the year indicate that we are sailing toward an all time high,” said Ingvald Fardal, CEO of Fjord Line. “Booking figures for May to December of this year confirm the idea that was the basis for building two new cruise ferries, namely that a high quality service offering new and comfortable ships with daily departures from all four ports would generate more demand in the market.
Fardal added: “In terms of passengers, reservations on the Bergen-Stavanger-Hirtshals line for May were 29% higher than a year earlier. For the Langesund-Hirtshals, growth in ticket sales for eight months is a whopping 371% over the number of tickets sold at the same point last year.”
From mid-May until late August, Fjord Line will operate three daily roundtrips on HSC Fjord Cat, a high-speed catamaran between Kristiansand in South Norway to Hirtshals in Denmark.
“Advance sales of tickets also indicate that we are going into a very good season for Fjord Line Express,” said Fardal.
On 20 June, Fjord Line will launch Oslofjord, a converted cruise ferry, on a new route from Sandefjord, Norway, to Strömstad, Sweden. Currently being completed at a shipyard in Finland, the ship will sail year-round, offering two daily roundtrips on the route.