Holland Norway Lines

Yesterday you received an e-mail from us regarding your booking with Holland Norway Lines.

We would like to clarify one thing:

Your booking for future travel is not cancelled at the moment. In case Holland Norway Lines resumes sailings, your existing booking will still be valid. Holland Norway Lines has applied for a suspension of payments. This means that the administrator now appointed will see if and how HNL can continue.  

There is still a chance that we will sail again and that your trip will continue as usual.

Of course, it is up to you to start making any other (holiday) plans, but please know that, should HNL continue, we will be very happy to welcome you back!

To keep you as informed as possible, we will post the latest information and updates on our website. You can also find answers to frequently asked questions here: www.hollandnorwaylines.com

Kind regards,   


Team Holland Norway Lines 
 
For the sacked crew, staff etc. from HNL - please look here my post in Jobbforum about hundreds of attractive jobs in Germany - still actually.
In meantime the company is declared as bankrupty in the Netherlands by court. So there will be sadly no future. And there is also no money anymore for to get any other ferry.

Really really sad, i was really hoping that this route would be a permanent route for the future !
A route South-Norway - West-Germany/Netherlands is really a good route, but they have sadly made really some very very big mistakes:

1) To charter very expensive a ferry for CIRCA 100,- (?) per night and cabin (this is the circa-price what the refugee-accomodations pay to Tallink - maybe HNL has got a little "long-time-discount" - but still much too much money). It would has been much more cheaper to start with any other ferry BOUGHT and not chartered, maybe a little bit older or a little bit smaller - but this would be much much cheaper than to pay (speculated) 40.000,- , 50.000,- or 60.000,- per day... . In july/aug. this calculation can work - but not in winter.

2) They have much too much people, staff, crew ! 400 (!!!) for 1 ferry only with 727 cabins ??? That´s really mega-strange, crazy, not too believe ! This was already the big mistake from Tallink, they have had f.ex. super much 260 crew-people onboard of the sister-ferry Galaxy 1, much more than the competing Viking Line on Grace/Glory!
Viking Line f.ex. has much smaller crew, f.ex. most areas are cleaned daily from cheap cleaning-people in Stockholm, paid only for the less than 1 hour cleaning between arrival and departure.
Why HNL need any staff in Norway ? Ca. 1, 2, 3 Norwegians in the main-office for translations, marketing etc. would be enough. And in Kristiansand people for check-in etc. could come from the ferry-crew self - so the staff based in Norway could be 0, also 0 costs for office in Norway etc. would be possible. Just one example how they have operated with much too much staff- and crew-people.

3) Crew-members only from most expensive countries instead of to take a big part of cheap crew from cheap countries. If you want operate an international CRUISE-ferry, than you need cheap crews as it is normal on 99% of all cruise-ships. Especially the Germans compare day and night all prices - f.ex. for few hundreds Euro 1 week cruise from Kiel incl. double-bed-cabin, all meals, softdrinks etc. with Costa to Geiranger or 2 nights from Emden on a ferry to Kristiansand for a similar price ??? Yes - the ferry-route is a monopoly-route, but nevertheless the people compare everything with other travel-options, other cruise-ships, other ferry-routes, cheap flights etc. . Especially if you are new in a market without any customer-base you need cheaper prices then other older companies.

4) All the problems with the port, change of port etc. . Kristiansand-Emden is really a good route, but they need also 2 own connecting buses in Norway (A to Stavanger-Bergen and B to Larvik-Drammen-Oslo) and connecting buses also in Germany to Bremen, Hamburg, Hannover and in Netherlands to Groningen and Amsterdam. Without own ferry-buses it is not possible to get many hundred cabins booked in winter.

The industrial-port Eemshaven anywhere in nowhere was from the beginning a big problem and a big mistake. Much too small, much too far away from everything, and the port do not want really a ferry also !
For minicruise-people from Norway it would be attractive to walk around some hours in a bigger city in Holland or Germany and shopping there everything much cheaper than in Norway - but this was not possible in Eemshaven - and Groningen is too far away. Ask in the shoppinghouses and fashion-brand-stores in Kiel - they will confirm you that they have a lot of customers daily from Colors Oslo Ferry !
Strange that they have started the route without any support from the port also and without to have a long-time contract for the ferry-berth in port ! The port has said from the beginning that there is no space for a ferry from 2023 ! But they have choosen nevertheless Eemshaven ! And until some weeks ago they have always spoken of returning to Eemshaven ! Instead to understand that Emden is many times better, bigger and with a much bigger german customer-potential than the potential from the Netherlands. Other ferry-ports as f.ex. Turku, Hanko, Langesund offers only symbolic low fees for new ferry-routes with high Pax-capacity. Why they have not from the beginning asked in Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Wilhelmshaven, Emden for cheapest port-fees and biggest support from port and city ? Each of these cities would be angry if the neighbor-city would have a big ferry-route. Port-fees could has been pressed down as the prices go up for football-players when a number of clubs are interested in them.

5) And the company-name was from the beginning not optimal, much too specific. And after the move to Emden they do not wanted to change the name from Holland to Germany because of paiting- and branding-costs ??? Think you are working in a travel-agency in Germany, every customer will ask "but, if this ferry goes from Emden, why the in name is "Holland". Any more neutral name would has been better, anything in direction "North Europe Ferries / Line" or something similar neutral short as SILJA, STENA, VIKING - with all options to start easy anytime in the future also other routes from Norway to UK or Germany f.ex. - and not only to Holland. They have copied the old name-mistake from Larvik Line... . Plus the negative extra-point that many Germans don`t understand that a ferry from Germany is operating with crew from Netherlands... .

6) Much too high ticket-prices. No cheap offers to fill the ship in winter with hundreds of minicruise-pensioneers daily, i have checked sometimes the prices f.ex. for minicruises in winter. Was always much much too expensive. Viking Line has often tickets incl. cabin for 20,- 30,- 40,- only - but HNL was offering it for 200,- or much more - than nearly all people stay better at home with the result of many many hundred free cabins daily onboard - but the company has to pay daily all the very high fix-costs !
Many 3, 4 star hotels in attractive regions in Germany offers in november cheapest prices for 30,- / 40,- per night - but who pay then much more than 200,- for a ferry-boat ? Also no big marketing-cooperation known, cheap cruises f.ex. with Costa, AIDA, Color Line and MSC i can book via cheapest supermarkets LIDL-reisen, Netto-reisen, ALDI-reisen etc. incl. millions of catalogues coming in every German household for free. Which customer-groups only can travel weekdays f.ex. in november or january ? Only pensioneers with small money, because the other pensioneers with more money are travelling in winter to warm sunny countries and destinations instead of walk around in (maybe) cold rain in Kristiansand... .
Have also not seen any special catalogues for bus-coach-tour-operators (5000 alone in Germany !) and not seen any special support for travel-agencies.

So there was 2 ways for such a ferry-route in North-Sea:
To operate with a mainly freight-orientated Ropax-ferry, then some few "rich" people will accept high ticket-prices also and fill the small number of cabins which are not used by truck-drivers.
Or to operate with a big cruise-ferry, but then in winter really supercheap prices and very good marketing, own connecting bus-networks etc. are needed !
Otherwise many many hundred cabins will stay empty daily and losses, losses, losses... .

In airline-business is the rule, that a plane will never crash down if there is 1 mistake only - but if coming 2, 3, 4 mistakes together - than it can happens... .
So sadly here a number of big mistakes has the result of closing of this ferry-route after only 16 month operation and many hundred people has lost their jobs and many customers has lost their money for the ticket (?), big extra-costs for hotel-nights, new other ferry-ticket etc. .
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And Tallink has a big ferry-parking-space... . Tallink has already Victoria 1 laid off without route or charter, now Romantika also and soon will Atlantic Vision coming back from Canada and also unclear how long Galaxy 1 will be chartered in 2024. Some cruise-ferries was already replaced by cheaper river-cruise-ships for accomodation.
 
All this smells very much like corruption - more known in the past especially in "southern" countries and banana countries... .
Why why why protect the Havnesjef so hard and clear the interests from Color Line an Fjord Line now ?

Which would both clearly loose a lot of customers with any new ferry-connection direct to Netherland or Germany ?
How is this possible in a country as Norway ?
Viking Line turns up to 2800 Pax + trucks, motor-homes, cars etc. in Stockholm and Turku in 1 hour only 365 days without delays - but in Kristiansand is nowhere space suddenly for a ferry for only 1-2 hours per day (or 2nd day) in the port ???

In fact he works massive
- against the interests from the port of Kristiansand (each port is usually trying to have so much routes, ships, connections as possible) and
- against the interests of the city of Kristiansand (each city is usually interested to have so much connections and guests as possible) and also
- against the complete Region of South Norway including all Norwegian people there.

SO NORMALLY THE HAVNESJEF MUST DO EVERYTHING TO OFFER TO ALL FERRY-COMPANIES SO ATTRACTIVE CONDITIONS AS POSSIBLE - as f.ex. the ports of Hanko and Turku or also Trelleborg and Ystad and also f.ex. Bremerhaven trying hard since years to get any new more additional ferry-connection to anywhere. And he must be NEUTRAL - and managing all wishes, time-slots and spaces from all ferry-companies together - as it works well f.ex. in Swinoujscie or Trelleborg - ferry-ports with a lot of ferries from 4 or 5 different competing ferry-companies (TT, Polferries, Unity Line, Stena Line and FRS or Finnlines in Poland) !
But he is doing the complete opposite - protect Color Line and Fjord Line only - with massive biggest - also financial - damage and disadvantage for the port, city and the complete region !

If there would not come any new ferry-connection not only a lot of less tourists including all their following money (for petrolstations, supermarkets, shopping-center, restaurants, cafes, hotels, campsites, holiday-cottages etc.) will come to South-Norway - but also all Norwegian people has less options to travel self to Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany etc. .
Just an example:
For any vehicle travelling from Trondheim to Antwerpen every new ferry from Kristiansand to Netherland or Germany would be a very attractive alternative to all ferry-connections from Color Line and Fjordline.

So all this is a really very big scandal -
and i am wondering very very much that such a clear stupid open case is possible in a country like Norway.
Only reaction now can be to fire this Havnesjef so fast as possible !

My advice to all people in (South-) Norway:
Publish all the details everywhere, in each medium and contact all political parties and also big organisations. In Germany f.ex. the ADAC (German car-owner club, 14 Mio. member) would do something against such a case also if a German ferry-port would try to avoid any new ferry-connection. Similar camping-oganisations, tourism-organisations, motohome-owner organisations etc. .
Normally everybody in Norway must be interested to get any new ferry-connection to anywhere.

It must be so much pressure as possible now on the havnesjef that he will be fired so soon as possible.
Then a new NEUTRAL Havnesjef must come - who is trying to make the port bigger and bigger and to get more port-fees, more routes, more connections, departures, bigger Pax- and freight-volumes etc. . And all ferry-companies can give every year their wishes, wished slot-times, timetables, ferry-berth-use, spaces in the port etc. . And then he must do his work simply - to MANAGE all these things so best as possible - maybe also with compromises for the both "old" ferry-companies Fjordline and Color Line. Instead of to hold a new ferry-company outside of the port.

And i guess that all this will take a little bit time - so any new ferry-company could start NOW from another port (f.ex. Langesund is free - maybe also other ports thinkable in South-Norway, Egersund was in the past a stop from Fjord-Line, or Stavanger, Larvik, Arendal etc. ) - and then move to Kristiansand later if there is another new NEUTRAL Havnesjef who will find space for a new ferry also in the port. But not to start the new ferry-route now would only support Fjordline and Color Line to hold even more longer her Duopoly with super-expensive galactic ticket-prices and freight-rates.
 
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