Eckerö Line

Eckerö Line Ab Oy

Company type	Osakeyhtiö
Founded	1995
Headquarters	Helsinki, Finland
Area served	Baltic Sea
Key people	Taru Keronen (President and CEO)
Services	Passenger transportation Freight transportation
Website	www.eckeroline.fi www.eckeroline.ee

Finlandia

Eckerö Line is a Finnish shipping company owned by the Åland-based Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö. Eckerö Line operates two ferries between Helsinki (Finland) and Tallinn (Estonia). Eckerö Line should not be confused with the similarly named Eckerö Linjen, also owned by Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö, which operates ferry services between Berghamn in the Åland Islands and Grisslehamn in Sweden.

History

In 1992, Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö and Birka Line founded a jointly owned subsidiary, Eestin Linjat, to operate the MS Alandia on the fast-growing route between Helsinki and Tallinn. The name of the company was reportedly selected for practical reasons as it required the change of only a few letters to re-paint Eckerölinjen into Eestin Linjat (or vice versa). Similarly the livery of Eestin Linjat was very similar to that of Eckerö Linjen. However, due to the use of the word Eesti (Estonian for "Estonia") instead of the Finnish word Viro, the Finnish public presumed the new company was an Estonian one. This was made worse after the Estonia-disaster in 1994 when many people in Finland began associating Eestin Linjat with EstLine, owners of the ill-fated MS Estonia. As a result of this Eestin Linjat changed its name into Eckerö Line in 1995 (with the livery of the ships made identical to those of Eckerö Linjen). At the same time a second ship, MS Apollo (a sister ship the Alandia and Eckerö Linjen's Roslagen) was added to the route.

In 1998 Eckerö Line acquired its first (and only) genuine cruiseferry, MS Nordlandia which replaced both of the previous ships sailing on the route. The Nordlandia also brought with it a slight change in livery as the typeface used in the ship's hull was changed from a heavy serif into a light, italicized sans-serif. In May 2004 Eckerö Line purchased the freight/passenger ferry MS Translandia as a second ship for the Helsinki–Tallinn route in response to the high demand for freight capacity after Estonia joined the European Union.

In May 2019 it was confirmed that P&O had sold European Endeavour to Eckerö Line.^[1] She was renamed MS Finbo Cargo and is to act as a complement to Eckerö's current vessel the Finlandia on the Helsinki to Tallinn Route commencing in June berthing at Vuosaari on the outskirts of Helsinki. She will join the service following another dry docking with an increased capacity of 366 passengers.

Fleet

Current fleet

Ship	Type	Built	Entered service	Gross tonnage	Passengers (max)	Vehicles	Knots	Route	Flag and home port	Image
MS Finlandia	Cruiseferry	2001	2012–	36,365 GT	2.080		27	Helsinki – Tallinn	Eckerö, Finland
MS Finbo Cargo	Ro-Ro	2000	2019–	22,152 GT	366		22,5	Vuosaari – Muuga	Eckerö, Finland

Former ships

Ships that are still in use are marked in green.

Ship	Built	In service	Current status
MS Apollo	1970	1995–1999	Scrapped in 2021.
MS Translandia	1976	2004–2012	Scrapped in 2014.
MS Nordlandia	1981	1998–2013	Since 2016 MS Almariya for Trasmediterránea.

See also

• Eckerö
• Viking Line (rival operator)
• Tallink (rival operator)
• Transport on the Åland Islands
• St. Peter Line (new operator from Russia)

References

1. "Eckerö Line Confirms LOI to Purchase P&O Ferries European Endeavour". NI Ferry Site. 2019-05-06. Retrieved 2020-01-28.

External links

• Eckerö Line official website
• Eckerö Linjen official website
• "Eckerölinjen". at "Fakta om Fartyg". (in Swedish)