Chandris Group

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The Chandris Group (former Chandris Lines) is a London-based maritime shipping company. It was founded by John D. Chandris and was the founding company of Celebrity Cruises. Its holdings include a sizable fleet of trading vessels and the Greek hotel chain, Chandris Hotels and Resorts.

[edit] History

John D. Chandris from the island of Chios bought the sailing ship Dimitrios in 1915. his first. For trading around the Greek islands he purchased three first steamers, Dimitrios II, Eugenia and Vlassios. In 1922 he entered passenger shipping in 1922 with the steamer Chimara, which ran a coastal service between Piraeus and Corinth. In 1936, he bought his largest ship to date, the 1,306-ton Corte II, built in 1911 and renamed it to Patris for operation between Venice and Piraeus as far as the Holy Land. It was sunk by bombing in Piraeus on 16 April 1941.

At the end of the Second World War John Chandris died. Anthony and Dimitri, his two sons, redeveloped the company as a large Greek passenger shipping company. The Britanis began from 1961 her service from Piraeus to Australian ports. The Ellinis began from 1963 the Chandris around-the-world service Greece-Suez (later South Africa)-Australia-Panama-Greece. With modernized second-hand ships, Chandris developed a fleet for cruise services;

With thirteen ships in 1973 the company had the largest passenger-cruise fleet in the world: (Australis, Britanis, Ellinis, Patris, Victoria, Amerikanis, Romanza, Regina Prima, Bon Vivant, Fiorita, Romantica, Fiesta and Radiosa). and carrying 500,000 passengers a year. In 1973, Chandris opened also the first Chandris Hotel in Greece and began their American cruise operations. The subsidiary Celebrity Cruises was merged merged with Royal Caribbean International with today operating 29 liners.