The largest national passenger shipping company plans to expand its fleet.
The largest national passenger shipping company Jadrolinija plans to expand its fleet with a new passenger ship, with the total cost of about 50 million euros. At an international tender, the contract for designing the ship has been won by Polish company Remontowa, said CEO of Jadrolinija Alan Klanac, reports Poslovni.hr on August 28, 2016.
Jadrolinija has started implementing its development strategy, and one of the main elements of the strategy is further development of the fleet. In this area, one of the most important projects is the construction of a ship for outer islands, Hvar, Vis, the outer part of Korčula and Lastovo, said Klanac and added that the ship will have to fulfil special requirements. It needs to be a stronger, more powerful ship which can be used during the winter months and also must have a large enough capacity to be economically viable.
The new ship, which would have a capacity for about 2,000 passengers and 200 vehicles, a restaurant and other facilities for passengers, would replace the ship Lastovo, which has been used for the last 46 years and which is still of a very good quality, but its capacity of about 70 vehicles makes it too small for summer months. “We and Croatian islands need such a ship”, said Klanac. The first step is the preparation of the project which will be the basis for the construction tender. The cost of the whole project will probably exceed 50 million euros, depending on offers received.
Klanac pointed out that the tender for the construction would depend on concession agreements with the state. “We will order the ship if we have lines to use it for”, he said, adding that it would take at least 24 months for such a ship to be constructed. Speaking about the financing of the project, Klanac said they were considering several possible models.
Jadrolinija annually transports 11 million passengers and 2.6 million vehicles and plans to invest 281 million euros in its fleet by 2027. They plan to purchase 26 ships, including 23 new ones. At the same time, they will sell 32 ships, which means that the fleet will be reduced from the current 50 ships to 44. However, the total capacity of the fleet will be increased.
