ANEK LINES announces that the inauguration of ultra modern and luxury vessel F/B ELYROS took place in Piraeus and Chania - Crete with the presence of many officials and visitors.
The vessel's inauguration in the port of Piraeus, in front of the new Ministry of Mercantile Marine build-ing, took place on Friday, September 26, 2008, in a brilliant ceremony with the presence of the Minister of Mer-cantile Marine Anastasios Papaligouras. The Minister pointed out ANEK LINES?s achievement and congratulated the Company for the decision "to add a new modern vessel in the Greek coastal shipping", whilst in the ceremony were present a lot of representatives of the marine community, the bankers and the local authorities as well as many journalists. The Minister during the ceremony highlighted: "The reinforcement of coastal shipping indus-try with new, modern, safe and high speed vessels contributes not only in the growth of our country generally but in the growth of local societies preventing the internal immigration".
The Managing Director of ANEK LINES SA Ioannis I. Vardinogiannis underlined, inter alia: "We feel very glad since ANEK LINES enters in a decisive and dynamically developed phase, not only for its growth but for its offer in the passengers, enforcing the basis for a stabile process towards the future. We remain focus in the de-velop of a safe and competitive fleet, according the European standards, which results in the growth of the Greek tourism as well as of our country generally. The F/B ELYROS is one of the biggest and most luxury vessel travel-ing in the Greek seas, built with the highest standards in order to provide high quality services. Faithful in our val-ues and with an experience of 40 years in the Greek seas, I really believe that the F/B ELYROS will contribute significantly in the renewal of the coastal shipping industry and reinforce the continuous effort of ANEK LINES to upgrade the provided services of tourism.
On Saturday, September 27, 2008 took place the inauguration of vessel F/B ELYROS in the port of Souda in Chania, Crete, where thousands of visitors participated in the ceremony, admiring the facilities of the vessel. F/B ELYROS, named in honor of the ancient town Elyros - one of the most significant town of south-west Crete during the historical yeas - acquired by ANEK in 2007, while the whole retrofit took place in the shipyards of Perama in Piraeus supporting the Greek shipping economy.
F/B ELYROS's carrying capacity is 2.000 passengers approximately, 110 tracks and 55 cars (or alter-native 650 cars). According the vessel's technical characteristics the length is 192 meters and the width is 27 meters, disposes 850 beds and the service speed is 24 knots. The vessel's standards meet all the requirements regarding safety prescriptions, environmental protection, automatic systems and modern facilities, while the well designed interiors and exteriors and the comforts promise safe and luxury trips.
The company's decision to deploy the new vessel ELYROS on the Piraeus - Chania route is in accor-dance with the ANEK's strategy for renewal and expansion of its fleet. At the same time the operation of this additional vessel will develop the financial results since the company's owned fleet will be consisted of 11 ves-sels increasing the total transfer capacity in passengers and vehicles.