Ferry

The owner of a ferry company has been on hunger strike this week, waiting outside Shipping Minister Panayiotis Kouroublis's office for a license to serve a route linking the Attica port of Rafina with Crete.

Greek coastal shipping companies face the threat of turning loss-making again due to fuel price increases and overtaxation.

The last financial year (2017) was seen as marginally profit-making in net terms for the biggest companies in the sector - but not all of them - as transport costs appear to have increased by 44 million euros.

An investigation was being conducted on Wednesday into the circumstances that saw a passenger of the Blue Star Naxos ferryboat fall overboard and drown.

The man, whose age has been estimated at around 60, fell off the ferry into dark and cold waters some 4 nautical miles off the coast of Syros. He was found dead an hour later by the coast guard.

An operation was under way on Thursday morning to tow the Panagia Agiasou passenger ferry back to safety after it broke away from its moorings at Piraeus Port in gale-force winds overnight.

Winds were still strong in the areas, hampering the operation, though meteorologists have said that conditions will ease later in the day.

Istanbul’s Fast Ferry and Sea Bus Company (IDO) and Bursa’s Fast Ferry and Sea Bus Company (BUDO) have announced the temporary cancelation of all services on Jan. 18 due to severe weather.

The heaviest snowfall in four years in Britain caused travel mayhem on Dec. 10, while more than 300 flights were cancelled at Germany’s busiest airport and a ferry ran aground in the French port of Calais.

A row appears to be building between municipal and central government officials over the growing piles of trash on Aegina.

Passengers are seen boarding a ferry at Piraeus port on Saturday ahead of the August 15 national holiday, traditionally viewed as the peak of the Greek summer season. An estimated 23,760 passengers left the country's main port for the Aegean islands on Friday. Another 8,648 and 3,150 reportedly departed from the ports of Rafina and Lavrio on the same day.

Ferry boats will be sailing from the port of Rafina, east of Athens, to the Greek islands as usual on Tuesday through Thursday after workers called off a planned three-day strike.

Workers of the PENEN union had complained last week that certain ferry companies using the port were violating employees' rights by making them work longer hours without overtime pay.

The Istanbul City Lines has updated a regulation that previously required people to carry their pets in cages when commuting by ferries, it said in a statement on its official website on July 25. 

Animals had to be carried inside cages with muzzles, according to the previous regulation.