STRINTZIS LINES
STRINTZIS
FERRIES
A
well-known company to anyone who had travelled between Italy and Greece in 80’s
and 90’s, was founded already in 1897, and started its passenger services in
1960. The first Strintzis’s “Ionian Star”, starter
international services in 1976, linking twice a-week Ancona,
Corfu, Igoumenitsa and Patras,
accompanied by various ferries in the following years and connecting Italy and
Greece also four times a-week; in 1986 Strintzis
launches a new Italy – Jugoslavia connection, between
Ancona and Split, on the first times for three times
a-week, then six times a-week, starting also another new line Italy –
Yugoslavia - Greece, Ancona – Dubrovnik – Corfu – Patras. In 1987 a new ferry entered Strintzis’s
fleet. the “Ionian Galaxy”, an hystorical
ferry between Greek passenger shipping services. This because with this ferry Strintzis introduced on Greek market the “cruise-ferry”
concept, meaning about a car ferry with high-quality on-board services, in fact
as a cruise-ship with garage, with the target to make the ferry-crossing
enjoyable as a part of the holiday; it was a great success and many other
operators followed Strintzis’s way. In a very little
space of time, Strintzis became one of the most
appreciated companies on Adriatic services, offering in 1989 and 1990 up to six
sailings per-week to Corfu and Patras from Ancona, six sailings to Split, four to Igoumenitsa
and two to Dubrovnik. In 1991 the Yugoslavian war broke out: on one hand Strintzis was forced to stop the connections to Split and
Dubrovnik and to reduce the services from Ancona from
four to three ferries; on the other hand the passenger and cargo traffic from
Italy to Greece increased a lot; this strengthened more Strintzis
Lines’s position, and in the first part of 90’s the
company and its competitors Anek Lines, Minoan Lines
and Ventouris Ferries started deciding prices
together, creating a sort of unofficial monopoly which was discovered some
years later by European Commission and punished
with a fee. In 1992 Strintzis Lines started a new
line from Southern Italy, the Bari
– Corfů – Igoumenitsa,
without success; instead two years later the Brindisi – Corfu – Igoumenitsa
daily service was a great success, also because the tariffs of that line were
far cheaper than tariffs of other Brindisi
competitors, being a sort of “low-cost” line as these services of Ryanair and EasyJet. On 1995 the
boards of Strintzis Lines and Minoan Lines decided to
merge their services to face the competition of newly-founded Superfast Ferries, which introduced two high-speed ferries
capable to cover the distance between Ancona and Patras in 20 hours; a new link to Northern Italy was
established, from Patras, Corfu and Igoumenitsa to Venice (which was preferred to Trieste),
however the merge was only on brochures, because both Minoan and Strintzis retained their external look and had different
domestic services; the joint-venture came to an end in December 1996 and the
two companies starter again to competing one another, especially on Venice line
and Cyclades services. On that period all Strintzis ships couldn’t make fast crossings due to their
low cruise speed, but the company continued to have a good success because the
“low cost” policy was extended also to Ancona and
Venice line; however the fleet was modernized with the acquisition of a 24-knot
ferry from Japan and the order of five new highspeed
ferries (two at Krimpen shipyards of Holland for
Italy – Greece line, two at Skaramanga yards, Greece,
for Piraeus – Ikaria - Samos
and Piraeus – Chios –
Lesvos
service and the last one to Daewoo, Korea, for Ionian islands service).
Deliveries were planned for the first half of 2000 for Dutch and Korean orders and for the second part of 2000 / beginning of 2001 for
the two Skaramanga sisters. On 1999 Strintzis started linking directly Ancona and Patras in
23 hours, offering five sailings per week from Ancona to Patras
(three in 23 hours) and four from Venice to Patras.
The future of Strintzis Lines looked bright and at
the end of 1999 also the drawings and names of the new ferries were introduced,
but Attica Enterprises, the owner of Superfast
Ferries, bought the 48% stake in Strintzis Lines’s capital, becoming the major shareholder. Mr Gerasimos Strintzis remained
president of the Board, but all the ferries were renamed and branded with a new
operator name, Blue Star Ferries. A little “Strintzis
Lines” was painted near the new brand name on ships’s
hull, but was erased in 2001. So the Strintzis name
disappeared from Greek ferry scene until summer 2003, when the family bought
from Japan the new “Eptanisos” which was introduced
on a classical Strintzis link, the Killini – Poros – Argostoli line, left by Blue Star Ferries after the sale of
“Ionian Sun”; some time later Gerasimos Strintzis resignes from his role
in Blue Star Ferries’s board; then the company
changed also the official name from “Strintzis Lines
S.A.” to “Blue Star Ferries S.A.”, erasing every connection with Strintzis Family. On July 2004 Strintzis
Ferries bought from Blue Star Ferries the “Kefalonia”
and her operating licence, with delivery in October 2004. So Strintzis is back: could this growth go on or not? Let’s
hope that we could have s nice surprise from “the blue ships”!
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