Attica Group: Νew era for travel to Argosaronic islands

The Argosaronic islands will become even more attractive destinations in the coming years, with the new, modern ships launched by ferry companies. Aegina, Agistri, Hydra, Spetses, Poros will come “closer” to Piraeus, benefiting the further growth of their tourism economy. The beginning of the new era takes place in the next few days with the launching of three modern high-speed ships by the Attica Group, which will replace an equal number of “flying dolphin” hydrofoils, while the plans also include the construction of an electric ship by another company.

The three new ships that Attica Group is launching in the next few days are Aero Catamarans, built of carbon fiber by Norwegian Brodrene Aa shipyards with and designed with innovative features that completely upgrade the services offered. The three ships are expected to arrive in Piraeus today, August 1, carried on the ship “MV Rolldock Sky”, after a journey that started in mid-July.

The transport was organized by Golden Cargo, of the Golden Union group, a company specializing in the global shipping industry, a partner of the Attica group for over 10 years, offering Logistics services to all the group’s activities. For this specific transport, a special heavy lift ship was chartered so that it could transport all three Aero Catamarans together. One was loaded in the hold and the other two on deck.

Speaking to “NEA” newspaper, Attica Group CEO Spyros Paschalis emphasized that in a difficult financial period the investment of 21 million euros in the new, innovative Aero Catamaran marks the group’s recovery through investments in new constructions and in technologies that are much more environmentally friendly.

Daily routes

As reported, the three Aero Highspeed Catamarans will cover the connections of Piraeus with Aegina, Agistri, Poros, Hydra, Spetses, Ermioni and Porto Heli with up to 17 daily routes. The company plans to more than double the routes to Aegina and Agistri, while no changes are expected for the other destinations.

Each ship has a maximum speed of 32.2 knots fully loaded, a total length of 36 meters, a width of 9.7 meters and a carrying capacity of 150 passengers. The Argosaronic lines (not including the lines to Salamis) about 2.5 million passengers were served in 2019, approaching the high of 2.7 million passengers recorded in 2010. The total turnover of this market amounts, according to estimates by market players, at 30 million euros on an annual basis.

According to the Attica Group, a number of destinations such as Poros, Methana, Spetses and Porto Heli have been served by road axes in recent years, with travelers abandoning ships.

Attica with the three newly built Aero Catamarans aims to bring back a segment of these visitors to using ships, which will, among other things, be a more environmentally friendly development.

Attica Group aims to increase passenger traffic with its ships by 25%, approximately 1.3 million passengers, making trips to the Argosaronic more attractive. In general, it has been observed in coastal shipping that the routing of modern and newly built ships to a destination increases passenger traffic.

Saronic Ferries also has plans to develop new, modern ships, which recently announced its collaboration with C-Job Naval Architects and the Norwegian classifier DNV for the first electric passenger/car ferry in Greece. The electric ferry will connect the port of Piraeus with Aegina and Agistri and is expected to join the company’s fleet from 2026.