Eckerö Line

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Eckerö Line M/S Nordlandia in Tallinn

Eckerö Line and Eckerölinjen are two Finnish shipping companies owned by the Åland-based Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö, founded in 1961. Eckerölinjen operates two ferries between Eckerö in the Åland Islands and Grisslehamn in Sweden, while Eckerö Line operates two ferries between Helsinki (Finland) and Tallinn (Estonia). In addition to this Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö also owns Ålandsresor, Williams Buss, Algot Shipyard as well as 57,9 % of Birka Line.[1]

1 Eckerölinjen
2 Eckerö Line
3 Fleet
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Eckerölinjen

Eckerölinjen 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 Eckerölinjen 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 M/S Eckerö, a notably larger ship than the ones that have previously sailed on the line, with the second M/S Roslagen used as an extra ship during the summer high season.

Although Eckerölinjen 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.

[edit] Eckerö Line

In 1992 Rederiaktiebolaget Eckerö and Birka Line founded a jointly-owned subsidiary Eestin Linjat to operate M/S 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 M/S 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, M/S Apollo (a sister ship the Alandia and Eckerölinjen'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 M/S 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.