Ferry companies hike ticket prices for second time in 2022
Greek ferry companies increased the price of their tickets for most routes for the second time this year, citing the high cost of fuel. The new prices took effect on June 15.
The new prices range from 5% to 10% on average, while the previous increase in April 2022 reached an average of 10 to 12%.
According to executives in the coastal shipping industry, the ferries’ operating costs have jumped by 70%. A passenger ferry on the Piraeus-Chania line needs about 33 tons of fuel per day to operate this route. Today, Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) used on ships without scrubbers stand at $1,264 a tonne from $480 last year. Thus, a ship on this line will need 41,250 euros for fuel alone on each route, from 15,840 euros needed about a year ago, the executives said.
“We had said that 2022 would be the first year when we would return to normalcy, but then came the Russia-Ukrainian war, which has catapulted the energy costs of ships in the past few months,” a shipping market official told state-run news agency AMNA.
AMNA understands that new rises may be in store for some routes as of July 1.
