By A. Tsiblakis
Passenger ferry operators to Greece’s numerous Aegean islands have successfully employed discounts in the first half of the year to lure back passengers and try to eke out a bigger share of the market, with discounts reaching 50 percent in some instances.
The practice appears to have generated positive results, given that passenger traffic is the same for the first half of 2016 as it was with the corresponding period of 2015, when passenger ferries during that period transported hundreds of thousands of Mideast war refugees and assorted other irregular migrants from the eastern Aegean isles to the Greek mainland.The latter had haphazardly arrived on the Greek isles from Turkey.
According to an initial survey by “N”, both seaborne and airborne transportation to and from Greece’s islands is a highly competitive market, with five ferry boats added in 2016 – four in the Aegean and one in the Ionian Sea. Seven companies service the Cyclades islands alone, while three vessels are dedicated to routes exclusively from the Cyclades isles to Crete.
The entry of low-cost airliners servicing Greece’s domestic routes has also witnessed air fares often falling below ferry prices. Increased airline bookings are noteworthy for Crete and Rhodes, two of the destinations the farthest from the Greek mainland and two of the most popular island destinations.
According to the study by “N”, one in two passengers in the first half of 2016 traveled by ferry boat using a discount of between 30 and 50 percent. Some 48 percent of the automobiles carried by the ferries also enjoyed a discount.
The drop in fuel prices over the past two years, in tandem with higher traffic volumes, was the fillip needed by the ferry boat operators to return to more “profitable seas”, with four companies – Blue Star, HSW, Minoan Lines and ANEK – posting operational profits.
Before the fall of fuel prices, however, Greece’s coastal shipping sector experienced a tremendous crisis between 2009 and 2014, a period that also coincided with the unprecedented economic crisis that plagued the country.
Total sector damages totaled 1.2 billion euros during the period, with several ferry boat operators ceasing operators.
Greece’s coastal shipping sector, which includes routes connecting ports separated by narrow straits hugging the mainland and well as foreign destinations, annually transports nearly 36 million passengers and 10 million vehicles, the largest such numbers in Europe.
Some 40,000 routes are plied in Greek waters every year.
