Paphos Life

After 21 years, the maritime passenger connection between Cyprus and Greece becomes a reality.  On June 19, M/V Daleela will set sail from the port of Limassol on its first of many roundtrip voyages to Piraeus, thus inaugurating the new service put in place by the Ministry of Shipping.

Read the article and chat about it below...

Very very interesting, especially at the prices quoted..
I looked up the port of Piraeus..."The port of Piraeus is the chief port in Greece, the largest passenger port in Europe, and the third largest in the world. "

I have added a link to the booking page which has times and full prices.

I for one are looking forward to using it,

It looks like Rhodes has been cut out of the Itenary.

Hopefully that will allow for sending Li-batteries to Cyprus by post. So far for private people that was impossible as you need a special insurance which is available only to businesses. At least that´s what I was told.

jeba wrote: ↑Tue May 03, 2022 10:08 am Hopefully that will allow for sending Li-batteries to Cyprus by post. So far for private people that was impossible as you need a special insurance which is available only to businesses. At least that´s what I was told.

cant you buy these batteries from Cyprus?

Not always, no. It depends on what they are for. It is a real pain.

''Less than 70 hours separate us from the first trip of M / V Daleela, with which, after 21 years, the passenger connection Cyprus - Greece resumes, as the preparations continue feverishly by the contractor, Scandro Holding Ltd.

Speaking to KYPE, the CEO of the company, Marios Michael, stated that the ship is in the mooring of Limassol and tomorrow is expected to enter the port "for the final touches".

The ship, he continued, has been completely renovated in Suez, then found in Salamina and Piraeus for the new furniture and tomorrow various machines will be installed for the cafeteria, the restaurant and everything else that is left.

"Tomorrow a port will arrive for the latter, we are working on a 24-hour basis", said Mr. Michael, noting that in the first trips any shortcomings or needs will be evaluated and any comments of passengers for improvements.

On Sunday, he stressed, "a new story is being written and despite the tight timeframe, we are ready", indicating that this is a big undertaking that people have already embraced, as the bookings have exceeded all expectations.

Specifically, as he said, while the technical studies estimated about three thousand passengers per year, the reservations so far exceed 6,500 thousand, while reservations have been made for more than 1,500 motor vehicles and mainly motorcycles.

"We have invested a lot in this project but we did it to help people embrace it," he said, adding that "we do not want this project to be for one, two, three or six years, we want this project to stay." .

Mr. Michael reminded that the company chose a ship with a capacity of carrying more passengers than the minimum stipulated in the tender (100). The M / V Daleela, he added, could carry up to 700 people, but the permit it secured covers a total of 340 people, including staff, with a maximum number of passengers of around 270 per trip''.

It is reminded that, in addition to the restaurant, cafeteria and doctor's office provided in the contract, the ship will have bars and playgrounds, casinos and services for transporting pets, while the price for a full meal will not exceed € 12. "Despite the accuracy, we thought it would be dishonest of us to differentiate the prices we had announced," said Scandro Holding Ltd. CEO.

The ship sails from the port of Limassol at noon on Sunday with 173 people, among them the Undersecretary to the President Kyriakos Kousios, the Undersecretaries of Shipping and Tourism, Vassilis Dimitriadis and Savvas Perdios, the Undersecretary of Tourism of Greece, Journalist Sofia Zhaiha of the team that worked on the whole project.

A ceremony will precede it, in the presence of the President of the Republic, while a welcoming ceremony of the ship will take place on Monday, at 19:00, upon his arrival at Terminal B "Themistoklis", in the port of Piraeus.

Translated using Google Translate from
https://lemesosblog.com/news/25181-pyre ... ou-elladas

I really hope this will be a success, but I'm doubtful that there's an economic basis for it. If there were, the original service would never have ended and the current one wouldn't require such a high subsidy and short duration. The major Greek ports are quite a long way away and an intermittent seasonal service is unlikely to encourage significant trade. What would actually benefit Cyprus is the opening of regular trade with Turkey, given that we're in a customs union, Turkey produces a wide range of goods (including RHD cars), it's close, it's both a producer and consumer of eastern Mediterranean products, and more efficient transport options already exist.

It won't happen, of course, but it would be to the benefit of both sides. Turkey may even start to reconsider the worth of its relationship with the island. Anyway, there's little appetite for a reevaluation of relations as things stand. Viva la ferry.