Venice will be included in the Ancona-Igoumenitsa-Patras itinerary, currently performed on a daily basis by the vessels “Cruise Europa” and “Cruise Olympia”. Departures from Venice will be on Tuesday and Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. arriving the day after in Igoumenitsa and Patras, respectively at 07:00 a.m. and 01:00 p.m. From Patras, departures will be on Monday and Tuesday at 07:00 p.m. and from Igoumenitsa on Tuesday and Wednesday at 01:00 a.m., arriving in Venice at 08:30 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Grimaldi Euromed S.p.A., a company of the Grimaldi Group and owner of the “Cruise Europa” and “Cruise Olympia”, will manage directly the Venice-Ancona-Igoumenitsa-Patras service while Minoan Lines, a company part of the Group, will be the general agent in Greece as well as partner for some on board services. With a loading capacity of 3,000 linear metres of rolling freight, 3,000 passengers and 215 accompanying cars, the “Cruise Europa” and “Cruise Olympia” are the biggest cruise ferries in the Mediterranean.
The new maritime link between Venice, Igoumenitsa and Patras will be in addition to the one already offered between these ports for the transport of rolling freight only, performed three times a week both ways by the vessels “Eurocargo Trieste” and “Eurocargo Patrasso”. Thus, departures between the lagoon port and Greece for the transport of rolling freight will grow up to five a week.
With this upgrade the Grimaldi Group confirms its leading position in the freight and passenger transport services between Italy and Greece. The Group offers a wide network of maritime links between both shores of the Adriatic Sea that includes the Brindisi-Igoumenitsa-Patras multi-daily service and the Ancona-Igoumenitsa-Patras daily service. In addition, it provides a ro/ro service which connects the ports of Ravenna and Bari with Patras, with a-three-times-a-week frequency both ways.
Through the strengthening of the links to and from Venice, the strategic importance of the lagoon port in the Grimaldi Group’s Motorways of the Sea network is confirmed. Venice is playing an increasingly important role as a logistics platform in the Northern Adriatic for the traffic of goods between Northern Italy, the North and Central Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Established in 1947, the Grimaldi Group is headquartered in Naples and has about 13,000 employees. It operates a fleet of more than 120 ships and is a world leading operator in the transport of cars and ro/ro cargo.
