These days mark the peak travel season for Greece’s passenger shipping. A total of 164 passenger vessels ply the sea, connecting 115 islands to the mainland and one another.
Through the whole year, the vessels will dock more than 185,000 times, carrying some 20 million passengers and 4 million vehicles, both passenger cars and trucks.
But this fleet is aging: the median age of the ships is 28 years, and more than 80% of them are over 20 years old, increasing maintenance costs, which cannot be avoided if safety is not to be compromised.
The last great round of investments in new ships happened between 1997 and 2002, when orders of about $3.5 billion were placed with shipyards.
By the end of that round, the median age of Greek passenger ships had dropped to 12 years. Nothing on that scale has been attempted since.
