Passenger shipping is entering a critical juncture as it faces its biggest restructuring since the liberalization of the market, a private study warns.
The study, the 25th annual of its kind by XRTC Business Consultants, notes that passenger shipping faces multiple challenges: renewing an increasingly aging fleet, complying with strict but constantly shifting European Union environmental regulations, dealing with successive geopolitical crises that affect operating costs and dealing with government pressure to keep ticket prices from spiking.
“Greek passenger shipping’s competitiveness will not depend exclusively on passenger and tourism growth, but by the ability of all involved parties in creating a new, sustainable and resilient growth model,” says XRTC founder and managing director George Xiradakis.
Green transition is an especially demanding, capital intensive prospect that will need at least €5 billion in investments over the next 25 years. That’s the horizon over which the European Union’s FuelEU Maritime regulation will operate; in effect since the beginning of 2025, it demands that ships over 5,000 gross tons cut their levels of lifecycle greenhouse gas intensity by 80% by 2050.
