Eckerö Line M/S
Nordlandia in
Tallinn
Eckerö Line and
Eckerö Linjen are two Finnish
shipping companies owned by the Åland
-based Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö,
founded in 1961. Eckerö Linjen operates a ferry between
Eckerö
in the Åland
Islands and Grisslehamn
in Sweden
, while
Eckerö Line operates two ferries (one for passenger traffic, one
for cargo) between Helsinki
(Finland)
and Tallinn
(Estonia
). In
addition to this Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö also owns Ålandsresor,
Williams Buss, Algot Shipyard as well as 100 % of
Birka Line.
[448613]
Eckerö Linjen
Eckerö Linjen began trafficking between Eckerö in Åland and
Grisslehamn in Sweden in 1961. This route is much shorter than the
one sailed by Viking Line, Eckerö's main competitor in the Åland -
Sweden traffic, taking only two hours to cross. Partially as a
result of this Eckerö Linjen operated its first two decades on
small used ferries, until the acquisition of the first M/S
Eckerö in 1982. Since January 2005 the route is operated
by the second
MS Eckerö, a
notably larger ship than the ones that have previously sailed on
the line, with the second
MS
Roslagen used as an extra ship during the summer high
season.
MS
Roslagen sailed for Eckerö
Linjen 1988-2007.
She was a sister ship to MS Alandia and MS
Apollo.
Although Eckerö Linjen and Eckerö Line are technically separate
companies, ships from one company have often been used to cover for
ships of the other during dockings and technical
malfunctions.
Eckerö Line
In 1992 Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö and
Birka
Line founded a jointly-owned subsidiary
Eestin Linjat
to operate
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 Eckerölinjen. 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 Eckerölinjen). 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.
Fleet
See also
External links
(rival
operator)
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