The passenger ferry "Princess Mary" had to suspend its operation for a week (March 9-16) due to heavy ice conditions at the port of St. Petersburg, Igor Glukhov, General Director of Inflot Worldwide St. Petersburg (an agent of St. Petersburg - Helsinki Line) said in an interview with PortNews.
"The ice condition at the port of St. Petersburg is so serious that we can not maintain even the winter schedule,” Mr. Glukhov said. I hope a week would be enough for the Port Authority to normalize the situation with smooth ice navigation at the port."
According to Igor Glukhov the ferry has been operating lately at its full capacity. In the past few days she has carried about 1100-1200 passengers per sailing.
"I think that in this week downtime we will not be able to transport about 6000 passengers, so we will incur a loss of some EUR 500,000 – 700,000", said Mr. Glukhov.
From April 2010, since the launch of the ferry service, the Princess Mary has transported 218,000 passengers.
"The ice condition at the port of St. Petersburg is so serious that we can not maintain even the winter schedule,” Mr. Glukhov said. I hope a week would be enough for the Port Authority to normalize the situation with smooth ice navigation at the port."
According to Igor Glukhov the ferry has been operating lately at its full capacity. In the past few days she has carried about 1100-1200 passengers per sailing.
"I think that in this week downtime we will not be able to transport about 6000 passengers, so we will incur a loss of some EUR 500,000 – 700,000", said Mr. Glukhov.
From April 2010, since the launch of the ferry service, the Princess Mary has transported 218,000 passengers.