Baltic ferry operator, Viking Line’s five vessels served 4.6 mill pax last year and transported a record cargo volume.
The Helsinki/Tallinn route achieved especially good results. as ‘Viking Cinderella’ added significantly more capacity between Helsinki and Stockholm.
The cruise vessel ‘Birka Gotland’, which is jointly owned with Gotlandsbolaget, also carried 438,743 pax.
The largest increase of 9.9% was recorded on the Helsinki/Tallinn route, which had 1,819,971 pax.
Capacity on the Helsinki/Stockholm route more than doubled when ‘Viking Cinderella’ was introduced on the route alongside ‘Gabriella’ in March.
A total of 722,051 people travelled on the route, and as a result, Viking Line’s market share was boosted to 43%.
On the Turku/Stockholm route, Viking Line’s market share was 70%, with ‘Viking Glory’ and ‘Viking Grace’ serving a total of 1,983,081 pax.
Viking Line transported a record volume of cargo last year, totalling 134,219 units.
“We had a successful traffic programme, and our investments in the two vessels and their service has yielded results.
“’Viking XPRS’, which now sails under the Finnish flag, has achieved a very good market position, while ‘Gabriella’ and ‘Viking Cinderella’ both sailed to Tallinn during the peak summer season. ‘Viking Cinderella’ was really well received on the Helsinki/Stockholm route and helped us to increase our market share.
“We are especially pleased about the new cargo record. Our vessels are an important element in maintaining security of supply in the Baltic Sea region,” said Johanna Boijer-Svahnström, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications.
Along with ‘Cinderella’s’ return to service with Viking Line on the original Helsinki/Stockholm route, last year, the company also celebrated its 50th anniversary of the route.
In conjunction with ‘Viking Cinderella’s’ return to Finnish service, the vessel was entered into the Finnish Ship Registry, and now all five Viking Line vessels sail under the Finnish flag.
Last year, Viking Line hit the 250 mill pax milestone, which took 60 years to reach.
In the market research firm, EPSI Rating’s 2024 survey of maritime shipping companies, Viking Line had the highest customer satisfaction for service between Finland and Sweden.
In early 2024, Viking Line launched green conferences on board its vessels sailing to Turku, which reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the conference journey by about 90%. In spring of this year, the new green meeting product will be offered on all routes and vessels.
In July 2024, Viking Line opened the Baltic Sea’s first green shipping corridor for cargo in partnership with the food conglomerate Orkla Finland and the transport company Scandic Trans.
For example, the 683 km journey that Felix ketchup makes from Orkla’s factory in Fågelmara, Sweden to the logistics centre in Turku, Finland is now powered by biofuel, which reduces fossil carbon emissions in the chain by 90 %. In one year, emissions were reduced by a total of 190 tonnes, the company claimed.
Viking Line offered this green shipping corridor to all customers on the Turku/Stockholm route when both ‘Viking Glory’ and ‘Viking Grace’ ran on biogas for one week to celebrate Baltic Sea Day.
For more than a year, Viking Line’s customers have been able to buy biogas to offset the carbon footprint of their journey, which reduces passenger emissions by 90%, compared to travel fuelled by LNG.
