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FERRIES
CRETAN FERRIES
Rethimniaki N.E.
In the Golden Era of Locally-based ferry companies, Crete Island
played a very active role: there was established the first locally-based
company, in 1967, and there has the headquarters Minoan Lines, one of the most
important Greek companies. On 1988, the direct ferry services from Piraeus to
Crete were an exclusive of Minoan Lines, based at Heraklion,
main town of Crete, and of ANEK, with headquarters at Chania,
the second biggest town of the island; both the two operators had connections between Piraeus, Chania and Heraklion, but no
ferry called at Rethimnon, third city of the island,
even if the mayor of Rethimnon is a permanent member
of ANEK board, as long as the mayor of Chania is. So
the community of Rethimnon decided to establish its
own ferry company, with the aim of linking directly Rethimnon
to Piraeus. The
first ferry chosen by the company was a former Japanese vessel, the “Arkadi”, which started in 1989 the sailings between Piraeus and Rethimnon, four times a-week. The service is successful, so
in 1995 the Rethimniaki introduces a second vessel,
the “Preveli”, on the well-known line, being able to
offer daily sailings from both ports; the second ferry was particularly
luxurious and plenty of on-board services. With the new vessel, also the livery
of the company changes, displaying a new “Cretan Ferries” brand, which became
the commercial brand of the company. Anyway this could have been a too big move
for the company, which was bought by ANEK in 1999. Anyway the Cretan Ferries’s colours remained on the two vessels for all the
1999 season, with the elegant livery of the company leaving its place to the
blue-yellow of ANEK only in 2000. The company operated also a catamaran service
from Corfu to Amphilochia, a city of Preveza gulf, even
if I don’t know many details of it.
CRETAN FERRIES - RETHIMNIAKI N.E.'s datas
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