Smyril Line

Smyril Line

Type	A/S (Aktieselskab)
Founded	1983
Headquarters	Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
Area served	North Sea North Atlantic Norwegian Sea
Services	Passenger transportation Freight transportation
Operating income	DKK 5.513 million (2009) [1]
Net income	DKK 407.000 (2009) [2]
Total assets	DKK 483.000 (2009) [3]
Total equity	DKK 122 million (2011) [4]
Website	www.smyrilline.com

The old Norröna in Tórshavn Harbour, 1997

Smyril Line is a Faroese shipping company, linking the Faroe Islands with Denmark and Iceland; previously, it also served Norway and the United Kingdom. Smyril is the Faroese word for the merlin.

Since 1983 the company has operated a regular international passenger, car and freight service using a large, modern, multi-purpose ferry named MV Norröna. The original vessel was a Swedish-built ferry formerly named Gustav Vasa (built in 1973). This was replaced by the Norröna, built in Lübeck, Germany in 2003. The large purchase price, some €100 million, gave the operator financial difficulties, and Smyril line eventually had to receive public support from the Faroese Government to stay afloat. Today the holding company is owned by Framtaksgrunnur Føroya (Faroese Development Trust) 33,6%, the Faroese Government 23,6%, TF Holding 20,7% and the Shetlands Development trust 6,8%, the remaining shares are owned by several minor stakeholders.^[5]

Operations

- The weekly service serves the following ports:

• Tórshavn, Faroe Islands
• Seyðisfjörður, Iceland
• Hirtshals, Denmark

The crossing between Hirtshals and Tórshavn takes 38 hours in winter and 30 hours during the summer schedule. The onwards journey to Seyðisfjörður takes another 15 hours excluding a layover in Tórshavn ^[6] and this only during the summer schedule. Until the end of the Summer 2007 timetable Smyril Line also served Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. On 11 November 2008 Smyril Line announced that it would end services to Scrabster, Scotland and Bergen, Norway.^[7] On 1 September Smyril Line announced that it would end services to Hanstholm (summer) and Esbjerg (winter) in Denmark and move all its Danish ferry operations to Hirtshals.

See also

• Smyril - the largest vessel of the Faroese domestic ferry company Strandfaraskip Landsins (not related to Smyril Line)
• Strandfaraskip Landsins
• Transport in the Faroe Islands

Gallery

External links

• Smyril Line (official website in English)
• BBC News: Cars wrecked as ferry hit storms, 13 November 2007

References