Summary
I love Viking Lines as a company and I fw it heavy I love commercial shipping I love civilian shipping and I love ships and especially viking Line's ferries.
(lazy description summary here idk what to write)
Viking Line Abp or commonly Viking Line is a Finnish shipping company that operates a fleet of cruiseferries and ferries within the Baltic Sea, serving Sweden, Finland, Estonia and the Aland Islands. Their headquarters are located in Mariehamn, Aland in Finland.
The Viking Line consortium was made between three companies in the Aland service, the Finnish-founded Rederi Ab Sally and SF Line and the Swedish-founded Rederi AB Slite.
(lazy description summary here idk what to write)
Viking Line Abp or commonly Viking Line is a Finnish shipping company that operates a fleet of cruiseferries and ferries within the Baltic Sea, serving Sweden, Finland, Estonia and the Aland Islands. Their headquarters are located in Mariehamn, Aland in Finland.
The Viking Line consortium was made between three companies in the Aland service, the Finnish-founded Rederi Ab Sally and SF Line and the Swedish-founded Rederi AB Slite.
History
The early years of Viking Line can be traced back in 1959, when a group of businessmen from the Aland Islands formed the company Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen and purchased the SS Dinard from the United Kingdom, renaming the Dinard to the SS Viking, serving the Korpo (Finland) - Mariehamn (Aland) - Graddo (Sweden) route.
In the same year, the Gotland-based Rederi AB Slite started a service between Simpnas (Sweden) - Mariehamn.
in 1962, a disagreement caused a group of individuals to leave Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen and formed their own company, Rederi Ab Alandsfarjan, who began their own service between Graddo and Mariehamn the following year.
With all companies competing for passengers in Aland and Sweden, the three companies realized in the long run that the would gain nothing from rivalry and competition, and in 1965, Vikinglinjen and Slite would begin collaborating. In the end of July in 1966, Viking Line would be established as a marketing company for all three companies. Out from this formation, Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen renamed their company to Rederi Ab Solstad to avoid confusion with the marketing company. The iconic red hull would be taken from Slite's Alandspilen service.
In 1967, Rederi Ab Alandsfarjan renamed themselves to SF Line and Rederi Ab Solstad would merge with their parent company to form Rederi Ab Sally.
With Viking Line being only a marketing company, each individual company retained control of their individual fleets and could choose on which routes to set their ships (to where there was also coordination in scheduling), each company's ships were easy to distinguish by name alone: Sally's ships had the 'Viking' prefix on all their names, Slite took their names from Roman and Greek mythologies while SF Line's names ended with suffix -ella in honour of the wife of the managing director Ellen Eklund.
During the time of the 1970s, Viking Line expanded greatly and overtook Silja Line as one of the largest shipping consortium in the Northern Baltic Sea. Between 1970 and 1973, Slite and Sally handled and took the delivery of five ships from Meyer Werft Germany, namely the MS Apollo and Diana for Slite and the MS Viking 1, MS Viking 3 and MS Viking 4 for Sally.
In 1973, Viking Line started service on the Turku-Mariehamn-Stockholm route, putting them on a crash collision course and directly competing with Silja Line for the first time. The next year over, Sally began traffic between Helsinki and Stockholm, which the next decade Viking Line dominated the route, whereas the other companies managed and operated together.
In the later half of the 1970s, Sally became the dominant partner in the consortium. In 1980, Sally took in the delivery of three new ferries, the Viking Saga, Viking Sally and Viking Song, the largest ships to have sailed under Viking Line's colours. In the early 1980s Sally expanded operations to other waters, which began the company's failing as those operations were largely unprofitable and ultimately made Sally unable to invest in new tonnage for Viking Line service.
In 1985, SF line's brand-new MS Mariella, at the time the largest ferry in the world replaced, Sally's Viking Song on the Helsinki-Stockholm service, breaking Sally's monopoly on the route. The next year, Slite took delivery of Mariella's sister ship, the MS Olympia and forced Sally out the Helsinki-Stockholm traffic completely.
While SF Line and Rederi Ab Slite were planning additional newbuilds for the Viking Line fleet, Sally were in a poor position financially, which would lead to Effoa and Johnson Line, the owners of Silja Line purchasing Sally. As a result of the purchase, SF Line and Slite forced Rederi Ab Sally out of the Viking Line consortium.
In the span of 1988 to 1990, SF Line took in the delivery of three new ships (The MS Amorella, MS Isabella and MS Cinderella) while Slite took in two (MS Athena and MS Kalypso). Though, Wartsila Marine, the shipyard building one of SF Line's newbuilds and both of Slite went bankrupt in 1989. SF Line avoided financial repercussions as their Cinderella had been continuously paid for as her construction progressed. Slite however signed a traditional form of contract in which the Kalypso was to be paid on delivery. Since the bankrupt shipyard owned the unfinished ship, this led to the increased cost for the Kalypso, about 200 million krona than originally envisioned.
In the end, despite the financial problems Viking Line was going through, by the 1990s, Viking Line had the largest and modern cruiseferry fleet in the world.
In the early 1990s, Slite started planning for a newbuild, the MS Europa, which was to be the jewel of Viking line, the largest and most luxurious cruiseferry in the world. Unfortunately for Slite, Sweden entered a financial crisis during the construction of the Europa, which led to the devaluation of the Swedish krona. This in turn was meant that the cost of the Europa rose to 400 million krona. When it came to take delivery of the finished ship, Slite did not have the funds to pay for the Europa and their main funders (Nordbanken, who were also the main funders of Silja line) refused to loan Slite the money needed. The Europa ended up into Silja Line's fleet and Slite was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1993.
Following the declared bankruptcy of Slite, SF Line was left as the sole operator of the entirety of the consortium. The remaining newbuilds of Slite were auctioned in August of 1993, which SF Line made a bid for the Kalypso. Both ships ended up being sold to newly established cruise ship operator Star Cruises. In 1995, SF Line renamed their company into Viking Line.
Between 1996 and 1996, the company operated a fast ferry service between Helsinki and Tallinn during the summers on chartered catamaran ships.
In 2006, Sea Containers Ltd, the owner of Silja Line in 1999 placed Silja Line and their cargo-carrying subsidiary SeaWind Line for sale with the exception of GTS Finnjet and the MS Silja Opera that were transferred under Sea Container's direct ownership were eventually sold. Viking Line placed a bid for their main competitor but were outbid from the Estonian company, Tallink.
The first new ship for Viking Line since Slite's MS Kalypso, MS Viking XPRS was ordered from Aker Finnyards in 2005, in response to encroaching competition from Tallink on the Helsinki-Tallinn route. A second newbuild was ordered in January 2007, when Viking Line announced that they had placed an order for a 15,000 GT ferry at Spanish shipyard Astilleros de Sevilla. The ship would've replaced the MS Rosella on the Mariehamn-Kapellskar route. When delivery of the ship was delayed multiple times, in 8 February 2010, Viking Line decided to cancel the contract with Astilleros de Sevilla.
In 2010, Nils-Erik Eklund retired as Viking Line's CEO. He was replaced by Mikael Backman who had previously worked with Royal Caribbean. In interviews, Backman has stated that he hopes to introduced features from Caribbean cruise ships to Viking Line vessels, as well begin Viking's routes in North America as a new cruise experience.
In a seminar in January 2010, Backman stated that Viking Line were negotiating with nine shipyards about the possibility of constructing a pair of 60,000 GT ships to replace the Amorella and Isabella on the Turku-Stockholm service. The possibility of the usage of liquefied natural gas engines and other emission-reducing technologies were researched behind the project.
In October 2010, Viking Line signed a letter of intent with the shipyard STX Turku for a 57,000 GT cruiseferry for the Turku and Stockholm route, which two months later, the formal order for the new ship was finally placed. The new ship was christened the Viking Grace, was laid down on March of 2012 and launched in August 10th. The Viking Grace entered service in January 2013.
Viking Line was revealed in November 2016, that a letter of intent was signed with the Chinese shipyard Xiamen Shipbuilding for the construction of a 63,000 GT cruiseferry that on completion replace the Amorella in the Viking Line fleet. Like the Grace, the new ship would be LNG powered and would sport Flettner rotors to reduce fuel consumption.
On May 27, 2019, Viking Line announced the official name of the ship, the MS Viking Glory, after a public name-giving contest. The maiden voyage of the Viking Glory took place from March 1-2, 2022, placing her in the Stockholm-Mariehamn-Turku route.
In the same year, the Gotland-based Rederi AB Slite started a service between Simpnas (Sweden) - Mariehamn.
in 1962, a disagreement caused a group of individuals to leave Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen and formed their own company, Rederi Ab Alandsfarjan, who began their own service between Graddo and Mariehamn the following year.
With all companies competing for passengers in Aland and Sweden, the three companies realized in the long run that the would gain nothing from rivalry and competition, and in 1965, Vikinglinjen and Slite would begin collaborating. In the end of July in 1966, Viking Line would be established as a marketing company for all three companies. Out from this formation, Rederi Ab Vikinglinjen renamed their company to Rederi Ab Solstad to avoid confusion with the marketing company. The iconic red hull would be taken from Slite's Alandspilen service.
In 1967, Rederi Ab Alandsfarjan renamed themselves to SF Line and Rederi Ab Solstad would merge with their parent company to form Rederi Ab Sally.
With Viking Line being only a marketing company, each individual company retained control of their individual fleets and could choose on which routes to set their ships (to where there was also coordination in scheduling), each company's ships were easy to distinguish by name alone: Sally's ships had the 'Viking' prefix on all their names, Slite took their names from Roman and Greek mythologies while SF Line's names ended with suffix -ella in honour of the wife of the managing director Ellen Eklund.
During the time of the 1970s, Viking Line expanded greatly and overtook Silja Line as one of the largest shipping consortium in the Northern Baltic Sea. Between 1970 and 1973, Slite and Sally handled and took the delivery of five ships from Meyer Werft Germany, namely the MS Apollo and Diana for Slite and the MS Viking 1, MS Viking 3 and MS Viking 4 for Sally.
In 1973, Viking Line started service on the Turku-Mariehamn-Stockholm route, putting them on a crash collision course and directly competing with Silja Line for the first time. The next year over, Sally began traffic between Helsinki and Stockholm, which the next decade Viking Line dominated the route, whereas the other companies managed and operated together.
In the later half of the 1970s, Sally became the dominant partner in the consortium. In 1980, Sally took in the delivery of three new ferries, the Viking Saga, Viking Sally and Viking Song, the largest ships to have sailed under Viking Line's colours. In the early 1980s Sally expanded operations to other waters, which began the company's failing as those operations were largely unprofitable and ultimately made Sally unable to invest in new tonnage for Viking Line service.
In 1985, SF line's brand-new MS Mariella, at the time the largest ferry in the world replaced, Sally's Viking Song on the Helsinki-Stockholm service, breaking Sally's monopoly on the route. The next year, Slite took delivery of Mariella's sister ship, the MS Olympia and forced Sally out the Helsinki-Stockholm traffic completely.
While SF Line and Rederi Ab Slite were planning additional newbuilds for the Viking Line fleet, Sally were in a poor position financially, which would lead to Effoa and Johnson Line, the owners of Silja Line purchasing Sally. As a result of the purchase, SF Line and Slite forced Rederi Ab Sally out of the Viking Line consortium.
In the span of 1988 to 1990, SF Line took in the delivery of three new ships (The MS Amorella, MS Isabella and MS Cinderella) while Slite took in two (MS Athena and MS Kalypso). Though, Wartsila Marine, the shipyard building one of SF Line's newbuilds and both of Slite went bankrupt in 1989. SF Line avoided financial repercussions as their Cinderella had been continuously paid for as her construction progressed. Slite however signed a traditional form of contract in which the Kalypso was to be paid on delivery. Since the bankrupt shipyard owned the unfinished ship, this led to the increased cost for the Kalypso, about 200 million krona than originally envisioned.
In the end, despite the financial problems Viking Line was going through, by the 1990s, Viking Line had the largest and modern cruiseferry fleet in the world.
In the early 1990s, Slite started planning for a newbuild, the MS Europa, which was to be the jewel of Viking line, the largest and most luxurious cruiseferry in the world. Unfortunately for Slite, Sweden entered a financial crisis during the construction of the Europa, which led to the devaluation of the Swedish krona. This in turn was meant that the cost of the Europa rose to 400 million krona. When it came to take delivery of the finished ship, Slite did not have the funds to pay for the Europa and their main funders (Nordbanken, who were also the main funders of Silja line) refused to loan Slite the money needed. The Europa ended up into Silja Line's fleet and Slite was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1993.
Following the declared bankruptcy of Slite, SF Line was left as the sole operator of the entirety of the consortium. The remaining newbuilds of Slite were auctioned in August of 1993, which SF Line made a bid for the Kalypso. Both ships ended up being sold to newly established cruise ship operator Star Cruises. In 1995, SF Line renamed their company into Viking Line.
Between 1996 and 1996, the company operated a fast ferry service between Helsinki and Tallinn during the summers on chartered catamaran ships.
In 2006, Sea Containers Ltd, the owner of Silja Line in 1999 placed Silja Line and their cargo-carrying subsidiary SeaWind Line for sale with the exception of GTS Finnjet and the MS Silja Opera that were transferred under Sea Container's direct ownership were eventually sold. Viking Line placed a bid for their main competitor but were outbid from the Estonian company, Tallink.
The first new ship for Viking Line since Slite's MS Kalypso, MS Viking XPRS was ordered from Aker Finnyards in 2005, in response to encroaching competition from Tallink on the Helsinki-Tallinn route. A second newbuild was ordered in January 2007, when Viking Line announced that they had placed an order for a 15,000 GT ferry at Spanish shipyard Astilleros de Sevilla. The ship would've replaced the MS Rosella on the Mariehamn-Kapellskar route. When delivery of the ship was delayed multiple times, in 8 February 2010, Viking Line decided to cancel the contract with Astilleros de Sevilla.
In 2010, Nils-Erik Eklund retired as Viking Line's CEO. He was replaced by Mikael Backman who had previously worked with Royal Caribbean. In interviews, Backman has stated that he hopes to introduced features from Caribbean cruise ships to Viking Line vessels, as well begin Viking's routes in North America as a new cruise experience.
In a seminar in January 2010, Backman stated that Viking Line were negotiating with nine shipyards about the possibility of constructing a pair of 60,000 GT ships to replace the Amorella and Isabella on the Turku-Stockholm service. The possibility of the usage of liquefied natural gas engines and other emission-reducing technologies were researched behind the project.
In October 2010, Viking Line signed a letter of intent with the shipyard STX Turku for a 57,000 GT cruiseferry for the Turku and Stockholm route, which two months later, the formal order for the new ship was finally placed. The new ship was christened the Viking Grace, was laid down on March of 2012 and launched in August 10th. The Viking Grace entered service in January 2013.
Viking Line was revealed in November 2016, that a letter of intent was signed with the Chinese shipyard Xiamen Shipbuilding for the construction of a 63,000 GT cruiseferry that on completion replace the Amorella in the Viking Line fleet. Like the Grace, the new ship would be LNG powered and would sport Flettner rotors to reduce fuel consumption.
On May 27, 2019, Viking Line announced the official name of the ship, the MS Viking Glory, after a public name-giving contest. The maiden voyage of the Viking Glory took place from March 1-2, 2022, placing her in the Stockholm-Mariehamn-Turku route.
Fleet
The modern Viking Line fleet mainly retains the ships of Rederi Ab Slite and SF Line which is made up of:
The list under is former ships of Viking Line, ships that are still in service outside Viking Line will be marked in green.
The list under is ordered and planned projects but were never delivered.
| Ship | Year in Service | Route | Image |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
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 |
The list under is former ships of Viking Line, ships that are still in service outside Viking Line will be marked in green.
| Ship | Operator | Year of Service | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
MS Tella |
1989 (chartered) |
||
Rederi Ab Alandsfarjan |
|||
MS Apollo III |
1982-1989 |
||
Rederi AB Slite |
|||
(marketed as Viking Express I) |
(chartered) |
||
(marketed as Viking FSTR) |
(chartered) |
| Project Name | Ordered By | Notes | Current Status |
|---|---|---|---|
Summary
History
Fleet
Index